Spain's key fresh produce export figures for the first half (H1) of 2018 have been released by the Department of Customs and Special Taxes, showing a small year-on-year drop in the value of exports to the EU during the six-month period.
According to the statistics, published by Fepex, exports to the EU came in 1 per cent lower in value at €7.02bn.
This was attributed in particular to lower value exports in both the Netherlands (€637.6m, down 1 per cent) and Italy (€429.7m, down 7 per cent).
Despite this, there was growth seen in Spain's three leading EU export markets. Fresh fruit and vegetable export value climbed 1 per cent and 3 per cent respectively in Germany and France respectively, up to€1.98bn and€1.28bn, while shipments to the UK came in 1 per cent higher at€1.01bn.
Spain's shipments to European countries not part of the EU jumped 7 per cent in value terms to€232m, driven largely by Norway which took on€63.7m-worth of fresh produce from Spain, a 60 per cent increase year-on-year.
Outside of Europe, exports rose 3.2 per cent to€247m, with Canada (€41.4m, up 64 per cent) and China (€27.9m, up 35 per cent) standing out.
In volume terms, Spain's fresh fruits and vegetable exports to the EU came to 6.3m tonnes in the opening half of 2018, while exports to third countries stood at 407,623 tonnes.
