Volume, wholesale value of fresh fruit, vegetables drop during second quarter of 2010

The latest NSO statistics published today showed during the second quarter of 2010, the volume and wholesale value of fresh fruit and vegetables decreased by 2.4 and 13.2% respectively, when compared to the corresponding period in 2009.

10 August 2010, 12:00am
by Charlot Zahra

2 min read

According to the NSO, fresh fruit and vegetable supplies for the second quarter of 2010 stood at 11.9 million kilograms, a drop of 2.4% over the comparative period in 2009.

Concurrently, the wholesale value of fresh fruit and vegetables decreased by 13.2%, to €5.6 million during the second quarter of 2010 when compared to the same period in 2009.

The supply of fresh vegetables during the second quarter of 2010 went down by 2.9% to 11.1 million kilograms when compared to the second three months of 2009.

In this respect, declines were registered in the supply of sugar melons with a decrease of 28.1%, lettuce with a decrease of 20.7%, cauliflowers with a decrease of 17.2% and vegetable marrow with a decrease of 6.2 per cent when compared with the April to June 2009 period.

On the other hand, the NSO reported that the supply of tomatoes and watermelons for the second quarter of 2010 went up by 19.1 and 11.9% respectively when compared to the same period last year.

The wholesale value of fresh vegetables fell by 15.8% during the April to June period this year when compared to the same period last year and amounted to €4.5 million.

According to the NSO, during the second quarter of 2010, the supply of fresh fruit rose by 4.8% when compared to the same period last year, mainly due to a 28.8% increase in the availability of strawberries on the market.

However, the wholesale value of fresh fruit during the same period dropped by 1.2%, to €1.1 million when compared to the corresponding period last year.

Maltese farmers supplied 11.0 million kilograms of fresh fruit and vegetables during the second quarter of 2010, yielding €5.1 million.

Overall, Maltese farmers contributed 92.4% of the total amount of fruit and vegetables on the market during the April to June period.

On the other hand, during the second quarter of 2010, Gozitan farmers contributed 0.9 million kilograms of fresh fruit and vegetables, or 7.6 % of the total supply, the NSO reported.