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Spain's fruit and vegetable exports grew in both volume and value terms during February, up 8 per cent and 5 per cent respectively when compared with the same month in 2018.

According to the latest data from the Spanish Customs General Directorate, processed by Fepex, fresh produce exports came in at 1.2m tonnes in value and €1.27bn in value in February.

By category, vegetable sales rose 7 per cent in volume to 648,985 tonnes, and soared 14 per cent in value to €708.1m.

According to the statistics, Tomatoes led the way with 118,353 tonnes exported, up 13 per cent year-on-year, bringing in some €135m (+22 per cent).

Peppers, with exports coming to 100,042 tonnes (+6 per cent) at a value of €145m (+12 per cent), and lettuce, with volumes of 100,445 tonnes (-1.3 per cent) and a value of €98m (+26 per cent), were the other leading products through the month.

Fruit exports grew 9 per cent in volume to 545,765 tonnes, while the value of those exports actually dropped 4 per cent on February 2018, down to €563m.

According to Fepex, citrus was the leading category by volume, while strawberries saw growth in volume of 25 per cent to 35,436 tonnes and value of 19 per cent to €98m.

For the January and February months of 2019 combined, the country's fresh produce exports grew 8.7 per cent in volume and 5.5 per cent in value, to 2.5m tonnes and €2.63bn respectively.