Italy: Fruit and vegetable exports growing by 9.1% in 2023

Fruits

Vegetables

Italy

Market & Price Trends

Published Mar 14, 2024

Tridge summary

In 2023, Italian exports of fresh fruit and vegetables hit a record high, increasing by 9.1% to 5.780 billion euros, despite a 0.9% decline in volumes, according to Istat data. However, a 13.6% increase in import volumes and a 15.7% increase in import value resulted in a trade deficit of over 500 thousand tonnes. The trade balance dropped by 29.7% to just over 543 million euros. While exports of tubers, vegetables, legumes, and citrus fruits saw good performance, fresh fruit exports suffered due to a production crisis. Dried fruit exports also struggled, but tropical fruit exports saw significant growth.

Disclaimer: The above summary was generated by a state-of-the-art LLM model and is intended for informational purposes only. It is recommended that readers refer to the original article for more context.

Original content

A record 2023 for the value of Italian exports of fresh fruit and vegetables, +9.1% compared to the result of the previous year. But volumes continue to decline, -0.9%. These are Istat data reprocessed by Fruitimprese. In value, exports rise in 2023 to 5.780 billion euros compared to just under 5.3 billion in 2022, while volumes fall to 3.483 million tonnes. The other aspect that causes concern is the growth of imports +13.6% in volume and +15.7% in value. If in 2022 imports were approximately 700 tonnes more than exports, in 2023 the gap rises to over 500 thousand tonnes, a negative historical record. The trade balance is affected, seeing the balance reduced to just over 543 million euros, down 29.7% compared to the 2022 figure. We export more tubers, vegetables and legumes which achieve +8.7% in quantity and +18.4% in value. Citrus fruits also performed well with +9.9% in value and +19.3% in value. Not the same for fresh fruit, which is affected by the production crisis of pears ...

Source: Fresh Point Magazine