Ginger and paprika from China, pepper from Vietnam

The EU Member States imported 379K MT of spices from non-EU countries in 2019.

Ginger accounted for the largest share of these imports (111K MT), closely followed by paprika and allspice (94K MT) and pepper (69K MT). The main country of origin of ginger, paprika and allspice imports was China (76K and 65K MT respectively), while pepper was imported mainly from Vietnam (31K MT) and Brazil (22K MT).

Imports of ginger, paprika and pepper were higher than imports of turmeric (15K MT), most of which came from India (12K MT), anise and related spices (14K MT) of which Egypt (4K MT) was the main supplier, as well as cinnamon (14K MT), of which almost half came from Indonesia (6K MT).

The next biggest imported spices were cumin seeds (9K MT), which came largely from India (4K MT) and Syria (3K MT), and coriander seeds (8K MT), of which half was imported from Russia (4K MT).
Compared with 2012, the weight of extra-EU imports of spices increased by half (+50%). Extra-EU imports of turmeric and ginger more than doubled, recording the largest increase among the most commonly traded spices.