Banana consumption in the EU

  • Published on 18/05/2017 - Published by LOEILLET Denis
  • FruiTrop n°248 , Page From 76 to 77
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Eastern Europe playing catch-up

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It is rather a complex task to describe banana consumption in each of the EU Member States. Since the depressing quality for the observer of this big single market lies precisely in its oneness. Flows between States are not always very accurate. While we know precisely what is imported from third countries and what is produced within the EU, intra-Community trade is more difficult to grasp.

Once we bear this in mind, we can study the situations with a sufficient degree of perspective. Nonetheless the exercise is an important one. On a market that has seen 3 to 5 % annual growth for several years, macro-analysis is insufficient to understand the route of this surge of volumes.

The first lesson we can draw from this study is the big consumption gap between Sweden, with more than 16 kg/capita/year, and Romania, with less than 4 kg. These figures are calculated over a ten-year period and statistically reprocessed to smooth the excessive inter-annual deviations. With this calculation, mean consumption for the EU-28 is 10.8 kg.

For 2016, taking the reservations into account, Malta, Finland and Sweden emerge as massive banana consumers. Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary are at the bottom of the table. The deviations around the European mean (12 kg) are a huge + 8 to - 8 kg.

So it is not absurd to conclude that, as elsewhere, there is a consumption catch-up phenomenon in the New Member States (NMS). A good part of the extra 900 000 t consumed since 2012 has been bound for these countries. It would be self-deceiving to think to quantify this consumption surplus, so tricky are the figures to handle. The fact remains that markets such as the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, the Baltic States, Croatia, etc., have seen their consumption level increase. On the traditional, i.e. mature markets, things are dead calm for France, Germany and the United Kingdom. Under joint pressure from its own production and a surge in imports, Spanish consumption leapt up by 1.7 kg in 2016: a figure that seems exaggerated, and which will need to be confirmed in the coming years.

In any case, consumption is moving in the right direction within the EU. With an additional 500 g per capita, the EU set a new record of 12 kg. This is a remarkable dynamic for a fruit which enjoys only very occasional marketing actions. We need to pray that this lasts a little longer, since the financial balance of the European market is at stake.

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