Household consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables in Spain fell during the January-July period

The consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables in Spanish households stood at just over 4bn kg for January-July, drop of 14 per cent on the same period of 2021.

Fresh produce market Mallorca Spain Adobe

According to the latest available data from the Food Consumption Panel of the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, the figure was a fall of 21 per cent on 2020 and 10 per cent on 2019.

”Consumption in homes has even fallen back to 2019, which shows, in the opinion of Fepex, that the growth derived from the confinements due to Covid-19 was somewhat punctual, returning to the decreasing or stagnant trend in demand of most of the fruits and vegetables from the years before the pandemic,” Fepex outlined.

For vegetables, household demand has dropped to 1.38bn kg in January-July from 1.63bn kg in 2021.

In the fruit category, household consumption went from 2.55bn kg in 2021 to 2.22bn kg in 2022.

Household spending for the seven-month period stood at €7.6bn, a drop of 5.5 per cent on the same period of 2021.

This was also down on the €8.78bn spent in the corresponding period of 2020, but up when compared to the pre-pandemic 2019 figure of €7.16bn.