Spanish fruit and vegetable exports fell by 2 per cent to €10.475bn in 2014, halting the upward trajectory recorded over the last decade. The decrease came in spite of a 2 per cent increase in export volume.

Exporter federation Fepex cited the Russian ban; moves by EU member states to promote domestic consumption; increased demand from non-EU countries and the failure of EU crisis measures as the main reasons for the fall in profitability.

The figures, published this week by the Spanish government, showed that fruit exports fell by 2.3 per cent in value and 1.2 per cent in volume, reaching €6.204bn and 7m tonnes respectively. The fall was largely attributed to disappointing stonefruit sales due to the Russian ban and falling EU consumption. However, strawberry exports increased by 3.6 per cent to €483.5m, while grape revenues rose by 9 per cent to €259m.

Vegetable export volumes rose by 7 per cent to 5m tonnes but fell by 4.2 per cent to €4.270bn in value terms. The income generated by tomato and lettuce exports fell by 3 per cent, while cucumber revenues were down by 3.5 per cent.

Accounting for 91 per cent of total exports, the value of sendings to the EU fell by 2 per cent to €9.561bn. Exports to other European countries were also down, most noticeably in Russia (-34 per cent), Norway (-6 per cent) and Switzerland (-3 per cent). However, shipments to non-European markets rose sharply (+32 per cent to €421.5m). The biggest increase was in shipments to Canada (+165 per cent to €58.5m), while sendings to Brazil and Algeria both increased by 25 per cent to €70.4m and €56.3m respectively).

The autonomous community of Andalucía, Spain’s biggest exporter of fruits and vegetables, saw export revenues rise by 2 per cent compared with 2013 to €3.583bn. However, exports from Valencia fell by 13 per cent to €3.205bn. Exports from Cataluña, Extremadura, Aragón and Castilla-la-Mancha were all up in value terms, while the Canaries, Castilla y León and La Rioja registered the biggest falls.

According to Fepex, fruit and vegetable imports grew by 5 per cent in volume and 3.6 per cent in value compared with 2013, totalling 2.4m tonnes and €1.697bn. Fruit import volume increased by 9.3 per cent to1.3m tonnes. This corresponded to an 8.6 per cent increase in sales to €1.171bn, with bananas, apples and kiwifruit the three biggest products. Vegetable import volume was up 0.7 per cent at 1.1m tonnes but the value of vegetable imports fell by 6 per cent to €526m. This was mainly due to a sharp drop in potato imports (-36.6 per cent to €152m).

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