Faostat figures place Spain top of EU fresh produce output in 2024, with 31.6mn tonnes putting the country ninth in the global rankings
Global production of fresh fruits and vegetables reached 2.13bn tonnes in 2024, according to the latest data from Faostat.
Spain ranked as the top producer in the EU and ninth globally, Fepex – which processed the data – reported.
The figures cover fresh fruits and vegetables, as well as wine grapes processed tomatoes, and exclude bananas and nuts.
Spain’s fruit and vegetable production stood at 31.6mn tonnes for the year analysed, placing the country ninth in global production.
International production is heavily concentrated in China, the report said, which led the 2024 rankings by a wide margin with 843.7mn tonnes produced, followed by India at 246.3mn tonnes.
The top ten is made up of the US (69.6mn tonnes), Turkey (59.8mn tonnes), Brazil (44.8mn tonnes), Egypt (42.2mn tonnes), Mexico (39.7mn tonnes), Russia (36.8mn tonnes), Spain and Indonesia (31.1mn tonnes).
The next EU producer to appear in the ranking is Italy, in twelfth place with 29.6mn tonnes, with France 15th (22.3mn tonnes) and Germany in 20th with 18.6mn tonnes.
Beyond total volume, Faostat statistics highlighted Spain’s “significant role” in several key fruit and vegetable crops, Fepex noted.
In 2024, Spanish tomato production reached 4.6mn tonnes; grape production stood at 5.4mn tonnes; oranges at 2.9mn tonnes; and mandarins, clementines, and tangerines at 1.8mn tonnes.
Fepex pointed out that within the stonefruit category, peach and nectarine production was “particularly notable”, amounting to 1.4mn tonnes out of a global total of 27.9mn tonnes.
Spain’s prominence was also evident across a wide range of vegetables in 2024.
Spain produced 1.5mn tonnes of peppers, 916,400 tonnes of lettuce and chicory, 757,790 tonnes of cucumbers, 770,770 tonnes of pumpkins/squash, and 671,380 tonnes of cauliflower and broccoli.
Other crops included watermelons (1.2mn tonnes), lemons and limes (nearly 920,000 tonnes), melons (594,000 tonnes), apples (545,000 tonnes), and strawberries (324,000 tonnes), Fepex added.
