Consumers in Italy are spending around €1.59m less on fresh produce than they were five years ago, new research has revealed.
According to a report by Italian public research body Fipe, since 2007 the country's shoppers have trimmed their household budgets for fruit and vegetables by €759m and €835m respectively.
The drastic cut in spending is over the five-year period is in line with an overall €11bn downturn in the value of food sales in Italy.
That decrease included lower spending on staple products like bread, pasta, meat and cheese.
Domestic food sales are understood to have dropped by 2 per cent in Italy between 2007 and 2010, compared with a slight increase of 0.2 per cent across the EU as a whole.
Meanwhile, out-of-home consumption fell by 0.5 per cent, equivalent to €313m in lost sales.
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