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A world of change for vegies
WHEN it comes to vegetables, Australian consumers’ tastes are changing.
A new report says from 2017 to
2022 per capita vegetable consumption across the country declined.
Rabobank’s World Vegetable Map
report said this decline also came
before high food price in昀氀ation had
kicked in.
“It seems that Australian consumers
are shifting from purchasing greater
volumes to focusing on higher-value
vegetables,” the report says.
“While consumption of carrots,
pumpkins and onions decreased,
consumer interest in leafy greens
increased.”
Although a small player in global
vegetable trade, Australia punches
above its weight when it comes to
organic vegetables, commanding more
than 5 per cent of organic global vegetable trade in 2021, according to the
report.
Rabobank Australian analyst Pia
Piggott said in the 2023 昀椀nancial year,
Australia produced $5.8 billion worth
of vegetables, although only $250 million were exported.
“Horticulture exports are growing
for Australia,” she said. “However,
this is mostly in the fruit and tree nut
categories, rather than vegetables.”
Carrots have been falling out of favour
Ms Piggott noted Australia is not
the only country with low vegetable
exports, with only 7 per cent of world
production traded between nations.
The United States is the largest
import market for fresh vegetables
and new players in fresh and processed trade.
The report says the value of the
global vegetable trade rose in line with
rising prices, reaching 3 per cent average annual growth from 2017 to 2022.
Production in the European Union
and the US saw declines over the same
... while leafy green sales are on the rise.
period, while global consumption held
up relatively well, despite higher costs
for consumers and producers alike.
Global strategist for fresh produce
at Rabobank Cindy van Rijswick said
the past 昀椀ve years have been everything but boring for the vegetable
sector.
“The Covid-19 pandemic, extreme
weather events, skyrocketing costs
for growers and challenging logistics
are just some of the factors that have
impacted the sector,” she said.
Despite these challenges, global
trade in both processed and fresh vegetables increased by an average of 3
per cent per year from 2017 to 2022,
though not in a linear pattern due to
the Covid pandemic and subsequent
in昀氀ation.
At its height, global trade was valued at USD $107 billion in 2021, passing the USD $100 billion mark for the
昀椀rst and only time.
Compared with trade, global vegetable production grew at a slower
pace of 1.2 per cent per year over the
same period.
Notably, the report says the EU and
the US both experienced declines in
production.
Ms van Rijswick said global vegetable trade mainly occurred within
continents and often between neighbouring countries.
“Since 2017, the US has further
cemented its position as the world’s
largest import market for fresh vegetables, with a signi昀椀cant share of
imports for greenhouse vegetables
like cucumbers, tomatoes, and bell
peppers,” she said.
“This has led to a nearly 40 per cent
increase in Mexico’s total fresh vegetable exports between 2017 and 2022.
“Mexico, Spain, and the Netherlands have remained relevant exporters in the world of fresh vegetables,
and countries such as Turkey and
Poland are becoming bigger producers and exporters of both fresh and
processed vegetables.”
Poland, in particular, has evolved as
both an importer and exporter, re昀氀ecting its growing signi昀椀cance as a central European trading hub.
Meanwhile, in the processed vegetable market, China has now become
the world’s leading exporter of frozen
vegetable replacing Belgium, which
was the previous top exporter.
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8 TASMANIAN COUNTRY Friday, April 26, 2024