The value of Spain's fresh fruit and vegetable exports dropped 1.3 per cent in November when compared with the same month of 2012, according to the latest figures from Fepex, coming in at €1.03bn.
According to the organisation, the fall was mainly the result of a drop in vegetable export value of 7.6 per cent, down to €399m. Fruit exports actually grew in value, by 3 per cent to €627m.
Within the vegetable segment, the biggest losers in value terms were cucumbers (down 10 per cent), peppers (- 1 per cent) and lettuce (-32 per cent).
In volume terms, however, November's overall fruit and vegetable exports from Spain climbed 5.5 per cent on the previous year, up to 1.2m tonnes.
Fruit exports rose 1 per cent in volume to 768,552 tonnes, with particularly strong growth in the persimmon segment, while vegetable volumes grew 13 per cent over the same month of 2012.
Imports
For fresh produce coming into Spain, meanwhile, value fell 3 per cent during November, down to €115m – the result of lower imported fruit value, down 7 per cent year-on-year to €69m.
Volumes of fruit and vegetable imports remained stable, Fepex noted, coming in at 175,748 tonnes.
This contrasted with the rest of the year, however; fresh produce imports for the January-November period actually grew 16 per cent year-on-year, up to just under €1.5bn.
In volume terms, total imports for January-November were up 1.5 per cent on the same period of 2012, at 2.1m tonnes.
