The Netherlands continues to lead the way in fresh vegetables exports, according to new figures from Productschap Tuinbouw, with volumes climbing 7 per cent last year to 4.6m tonnes.
Vegetable exports raked in some €4.2bn, the Dutch horticulture organisation revealed, leaving the Netherlands as the leading vegetable exporter in the world for the fourth consecutive year.
However, the gap to the world's second-largest vegetable exporter, Mexico, fell last year, from 543,000 tonnes to 269,000 tonnes, with the Latin American nation seeing its vegetable shipments grow 15 per cent.
Away from the Netherlands and Mexico, Spain, China and the US were the next largest vegetable exporters in volume terms, Productschap Tuinbouw noted, with the US, Germany and Russia the leading importers.
For fresh fruit exports, the Netherlands sat in eighth place globally last year with 2.5m tonnes worth of exports, an increase of 1 per cent on 2009.
Spain was the leading fresh fruit exporter with 5.9m tonnes shipped, followed by Ecuador and the US, while Russia, Germany and China topped the fruit importer list.
