EU vegetable imports led by Morocco, Israel, Egypt
Reduced tomato and onion volumes were largely responsible for total vegetable imports into the European Union (EU) dropping 5% year-on-year during the first half of 2015. 
Spain's Federation of Fruit, Vegetable, Flower and Live Plant Grower Exporter Associations (FEPEX) said a total of 1.3 million metric tons (MT) had been imported from January to June, with Morocco, Israel and Egypt as the leading suppliers.
Morocco's shipment to the EU were down 5% over the period, with the most important crop, tomatoes, falling 7% in volume to 228,379MT. The figure represents 81% of the region's total tomato imports.
The next most important produce item was green beans, whose volumes dropped 2% to 81,456MT.
Israel, on the other hand, managed to slightly increase its EU-bound vegetable shipping volumes by 2% to reach 229,991MT.
Potatoes represented 137,732MT of the total, falling 4%, while carrot volumes rose 34% to 44,706MT.
Egypt boosted its shipments 12% to come in almost on par with Israel, registering 228,126MT during the first half of the year.
Of the total, 150,886MT corresponded to potatoes, which registered 26% year-on-year growth. Onions were the next most important crop, representing 54,533MT.
Overall, potato imports by all supplying countries to the EU rose 7% over the period to reach 296,645MT, while tomato imports fell 11% to 281,452 and onion shipments fell 15% to 230,124MT.
FEPEX added the lower volumes from Morocco could be partly explained by adverse weather conditions in the country, as well as exporters taking advantage of Russia's import ban on EU produce.
Photo: www.shutterstock.com
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