€12.6 million worth of fruit and veg sold during first half of 2016

The volume of fresh fruit and vegetables sold through official markets amounted to 22.4 million kilograms, yielding €12.6 million. This represented a growth of 9.1 per cent in weight and a 2.0 per cent drop in wholesale value over the corresponding period in 2015, the National Statistics Office said.

Fresh vegetable supply went up by 10.2 per cent to 21.2 million kilograms over 2015. Increases were registered in most of the supply of vegetables mainly, eggplant (44.4 per cent), watermelons (25.4 per cent), carrots (20.2 per cent) and vegetable marrows (18.7 per cent). In contrast, the wholesale value of fresh vegetables decreased by 2.0 per cent to €10.6 million.

The supply of fresh fruit declined by 7.5 per cent, reflecting drops in almost all fruit under review, with the exception of lemons, oranges, and strawberries which increased by 43.2, 10.0 and 4.0 per cent respectively. The wholesale value of fresh fruit decreased by 1.9 per cent to €2.0 million (Table 1).

Regional statistics

The volume of fresh fruit and vegetables supplied by Maltese farmers marked an increase of 9.2 per cent over the corresponding period in 2015. Maltese farmers supplied 20.8 million kilograms of fresh fruit and vegetables or 93.0 per cent of the total supply. The wholesale value of such produce went down by 1.6 per cent, from €11.7 million to €11.5 million.

Gozitan farmers contributed 1.6 million kilograms of fresh fruit and vegetables or 7.0 per cent of the total supply. In volume terms, this produce increased by 8.1 per cent, while the wholesale value went down by 5.7 per cent over 2015.

January-June 2016

Between January-June 2016, the All Items fresh fruit price index increased by 1.88 points (1.3 per cent) to 141.41 points. The respective volume index went up by 83.74 points (85.1 per cent) to 182.20 points.

The All Items fresh vegetables price index declined by 18.75 points (13.5 per cent) to 119.81 points. In contrast, the respective volume index increased by 9.53 points or 10.2 per cent to 102.78 points.