Japan's fruit imports remained flat year-on-year reaching 1.56 million metric tons (MT) in 2015, according to data from the local Ministry of Finance's Customs and Tariff Bureau.

Tropicals suffered a significant decline however, most notably in pineapples which saw the sharpest fall in overall volume, dropping 9% to 150,598MT.

Papayas (-45% to 1,493MT) and mangoes (-21% to 5,841MT) also saw significant drops, while melons saw a significant decrease as well (-18% to 23,764MT).

However, bananas (+1% to 958,000MT), mandarins (+14% to 11,644MT), limes (+8% to 2,168MT), lemons (+3% to 48,558MT) and oranges (+1% to 84,113MT) all saw positive growth on 2014.

Bananas were the top category of fruit imports for the East Asian nation last year, while apples were the lowest specified category imported and also had the largest decline percentage-wise at 49%.

The highest increase in overall shipments was for dates, swelling 30% to 1,325MT, while growth rates were also strong for kiwifruit (+21% to 78,648MT) and grapes (+11% to 21,915MT).

Imports of avocados saw flat growth, reaching 57,588MT.

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