Japan’s imports of fresh fruit were at the lowest in 15 years, according to Japan’s Ministry of Finance report ‘Fresh Fruits Import Situation 2000-2014'.
The report shows that fruit imports dropped from a peak of 1.89m tonnes in 2009 to 1.57m tonnes in 2014.
Bananas have maintained their position as the leading imported fruit in Japan, accounting for 60.3 per cent of imported fruit in 2014, followed by pineapples (10.6 per cent) and grapefruit (6.9 per cent).
While imports of most fruit dropped over the 15-year period, imports of avocados, grapes and pineapples rose.
Avocado imports grew from 14,000 tonnes in 2000 to 58,000 tonnes in 2014, which Hisao Takeda, of Tokyo-based fruit consultancy Yamano & Associates, attributes to consumer education about the best ways to ripen and eat avocados.
“Out of many fruits, avocado has the widest range of recipes among internet recipe sites, which demonstrates increased interest among Japanese consumers in eating avocado,” Takeda told Asiafruit.
Overall, Japan’s per capita consumption of fruit has fallen 60 per cent in the past 40 years.
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