Spain: Vegetable imports have grown strongly in the last five campaigns

The article highlights a worrying decline in the production and export of vegetables in Spain over the last five campaigns, with greenhouse and outdoor vegetables seeing decreases of 1% and 7.8% in production respectively, and drops in exports of 2.8% and 1.6% for greenhouse and outdoor vegetables respectively. Conversely, imports of both types of vegetables have surged, with greenhouse vegetables up by 13% and outdoor vegetables by 12.7%. This trend has led to concerns about the loss of Spain's market share in the UK and other regions, with Morocco emerging as a strong competitor. The article underscores the need for the sector to address these challenges to stem the decline and maintain its competitiveness.

The production and export of vegetables has fallen in the last five campaigns, while imports have grown strongly. Greenhouse vegetables have fallen by 1% in production and 2.8% in exports, while imports have risen by 13%. Outdoor vegetables have fallen by 7.8% in production and 1.6% in exports, while imports have risen by 12.7%. This is revealed by the data provided by MAPA officials at the vegetable sector meeting this Thursday, in which representatives of the sector organisations, including Fepex, also took part. The production of greenhouse vegetables in the last 2023/2024 campaign, which runs from September 2023 to August 2024 and includes the production of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini and eggplant, has reached 4.29 million tonnes, which represents a decrease of 1% compared to the average of the last five campaigns. Regarding the foreign trade of winter vegetables, in 2023/2024 exports have decreased compared to the average of the last five years by 2.8%, standing at ...