European banana consumption

  • Published on 13/05/2016 - Published by LOEILLET Denis
  • FruiTrop n°240 , Page From 92 to 93
  • Free

Between 2014 and 2015, European banana consumption increased by a whopping 300 grams! Quite a performance in itself, but more than that, the proof that a healthy dynamic has been established in the EU-28.

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 Average consumption climbed to 11.5 kg/capita/year in 2015, as opposed to the ten-year average of just 10.7 kg.

banana - EU - consumption
banana - EU - consumption

Analysis by Member State (MS) is fraught, due to movements of merchandise between States. The banana is a product which easily crosses European borders. Eurostat reckons that 2.6 million tonnes are forwarded after receipt. In 2015 Belgium, a major entry point, forwarded more than 1.1 million tonnes to the other 27 Member States. In this context the consumption level by MS is dependent on correctly identifying intra-European flows. Thus the data produced in this analysis are only valid provided that the MSs correctly record the merchandise movements. The EU’s external borders, judged highly porous, especially in the Eastern part, without any doubt distort the figures in terms of absolute value. Conversely, as a starting point, and for want of a better way, we can assume that the trend partly avoids these difficulties.

Finland, Sweden and the United Kingdom are the leading trio of Member States in terms of banana consumption. Finland saw the biggest increase between 2014 and 2015, going from 5th to 1st place. Its inhabitants consume 10 kg more than the European average, i.e. 20.6 kg/capita/year. Bottom of the rankings come Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania, with a consumption of 6 to 7 kg below the European average, i.e. around 4 kg/capita/year. More interesting still is the medium-term trend, which indicates that the consumption dynamic is with the NMSs (New Member States). Between 2010 and 2015, average annual growth was 1.8 % for the EU-28 and 8.3 % for the NMSs (12 countries excluding Cyprus, as it is a producer). They are clearly in a catch-up phase. But this is not all, since certain countries are now above the European consumption average, such as Croatia, Estonia and Slovenia. The Czech Republic, Lithuania and Slovakia are rapidly approaching it. As for the most populous country in this zone, Poland, it is on the up though more slowly than the others.

In the group of Old European countries, the situation is extremely heterogeneous. 2015 already showed that the producer countries registered a higher tempo than the EU-28, except for Portugal and Greece, two countries where domestic production is marginal within the supply. Growth was below the European average in Spain, and actually non-existent in France. In these two countries, the share of domestic production in the supply is crucial. In the case of the German, British and Danish markets, 2015 was a year marked by stagnation (Germany), or even downturn (United Kingdom). The biggest concern is that we also made this observation in 2014. Finally, we can note, without drawing any conclusions due to extreme variations, the soaring consumption in Finland, the Netherlands and Belgium. The latter two countries are major entry points for bananas from the dollar and ACP sources, so it cannot be ruled out that forwarded volumes were not entirely correctly counted.

banana - EU - consumption in 2015
banana - EU - consumption in 2015
banana - EU - consumption using reduced average
banana - EU - consumption using reduced average

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