New figures produced by Istat and published by Italian fresh produce trade body Fruitimprese have revealed that the total value of the country's fruit and vegetables exports increased during the first four months of 2011, despite a slight downturn in the overall volume sold to foreign markets.
According to the data, released at the end of last week, Italy exported 1.7 per cent less in volume terms than it did in January-April 2010, at just under 1.4m tonnes.
Whereas fresh fruit export volumes were up 9.3 per cent to 700,736 tonnes, citrus exports were down 15.3 per cent to 158,057 tonnes, tropicals were down 26.6 per cent to 41,901 tonnes and vegetables were down 7.1 per cent to 485,268 tonnes.
However, those export sales combined were worth €1.4bn, up 6.5 per cent compared with the year-earlier period, and buoyed in particular by a 25.1 per cent increase in fresh fruit export earnings to €628.7m.
Italy's fresh produce imports during the same four-month period, meanwhile, grew in terms of both volume and value.
The country imported a total of 1.21m tonnes, up 4 per cent year on year and worth a total of €1.06bn, 17.6 per cent more than in the first four months of 2010.
Notably, the country imported a lot more citrus (+46.3 per cent) than it did in January-April 2010, for an outlay of €67.3m (+20.6 per cent).
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