Fruit and veg consumption in Italy and Spain on the increase

There was an increase of 1.5% in the consumption of fruit and veg in Italy between January and March compared to the same period last year. In Spain fruit consumption saw a rise of 12% for fruit and 5.5% for vegetables.

The amount of fruit and vegetable bought by Italian families totalled 2,065,000 tons with a value of 3,273 million Euro. The data from GFK-Eurisko also shows that the number of purchasing families rose by3.5%, making the average per head actually decrease from 90kg/per household in 2009 to 88kg in 2010.

49.9% of the fresh fruit was sold through large retail chains, 6.7% went through the discounters and 6.4 in value retailers. Retail chains sold 48.4% of vegetables, value retailers 51.7% and discounters 9%.

During this period Spain's domestic consumption grew by 12% and vegetables 5.5% totalling 1.1 million and 684,047 tons respectively according to FEPEX.