Japan citrus Kyoto market

Fruit consumption in Japan is steadily rising towards the market’s traditional July-August-September peak, but volume is still down on the same time last year on the back of high vegetable prices.

Spending on fresh fruits was ¥2,432 (US$27.22) per household in May, according to new figures for May from Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications Statistics Bureau. That was down from ¥2,579 (US$28.86) the same time in 2009, but up from ¥2,320 in April this year.

Average volume purchased hit 5.99kg during May, which although not matching up to the 6.66kg in the same month last year was slightly offset by an average price paid for fruit of ¥406 (US$5.54) per kg, which compared favourably to ¥387 (US$4.33) in May 2009.

The lacklustre results can be partly attributed to a boost in vegetable prices in Japan, according to Junichi Moriya, president of Tokyo Seika Trading Co, one of Japan’s largest importers and the trading arm of Tokyo Seika Co, the country’s largest fresh produce market wholesaler.

“`Spending and consumption` per household were the second lowest in the last 10 years,” Mr Moriya told Fruitnet.com.

“Relatively, fruit consumption in May was slow. One of the reasons was the sudden rise in price for vegetables due to short supply.”

Swimming against the current have been bananas and kiwifruit, the former still buoyed by the legacy of last year’s banana diet craze and the latter attracting good prices and historically high consumption, although not at last year’s level.

Banana spending per household of ¥463 in May was the second largest in the last decade after 2009, as was consumption at 2.08kg. Average price per kg was ¥223, slightly lower than the 10 year May average of ¥234.6.

Spending on and consumption of kiwifruit were also the second highest in the last 10 years, after 2009, hitting ¥153 and 0.199kg per household respectively.

The price of kiwifruit hit an average of ¥770 per kg; while beaten out by same-month prices in 2005 and 2007, still a respectable increase on last year’s May results of ¥732 per kg.

Kiwifruit sold in Japan is largely of New Zealand origin.

Grapefruit spending, quantity and prices were all slightly down year-on-year, while all three figures were slightly increased for oranges for the month of May.