In 2022, 425 million kg of fresh fruits and 439 million kg of fresh vegetables were sold in the Swiss retail sector. Thus, retail sales fell for a second year in a row, but were still above those of 2018 and 2019. The value per kilogram of fruit and vegetables sold again fell slightly in 2022. In the fresh vegetable segment, potatoes and tomatoes were the top sellers, while bananas and apples were by far the most popular table fruits.
Decline in volumes and sales
Looking at sales volume trends, it is noticeable that a similar trend prevailed for both fruits and vegetables from 2018 to 2022. With the outbreak of the Corona pandemic starting in March 2020, there was a significant increase in retail sales volumes, so that annual sales in 2020 increased by 10.7 % for fruits and 19.2 % for vegetables.
Thereafter, sales volumes declined annually, first slightly in 2021 and then at sharper rates of decline in 2022. Nevertheless, sales volumes for both fruits and vegetables remain higher than in the years prior to 2020, with fruit sales at 424.9 million kg, 5.1 % higher than the 2018 and 2019 averages, and vegetable sales as much as 9.4 % higher than the 2018/19 average.
Decline in convenience vegetables
Convenience vegetables also saw volume and sales increases in 2020, but these were significantly lower than for the rest of the vegetables, at 8.9 % and 5.6 %, respectively. In 2021 and again in 2022, convenience segment volumes and sales declined at similar rates to those of non-convenience vegetables, resulting in 24 million kg of convenience vegetables sold in 2022, lower than in 2018 and 2019. For fruits, convenience products accounted for less than 1 % of volumes in 2022 and were not considered further.
Bananas most in demand, apples top selling fruit
Bananas were by far the fruit with the highest sales volumes. Mini bananas and plantains were added to banana sales, but they accounted for a fraction of banana sales at less than 0.7 %. Thus, although bananas typically presented few product varieties on store shelves, they accounted for 71.8 million kg of sales, or about one-sixth of the fruit segment's total sales (16.9 %). Apples were the second most popular fruit in the Swiss retail trade (60.4 million kg). With total retail sales of CHF 205.2 million (bananas: CHF 161.3 million), apples are also the top-selling fruit in Switzerland.
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