Supply of fresh fruit and vegetables drops in second quarter of 2012

The supply of fresh fruit and vegetables for the second quarter this year amounted to 12.0 million kilograms, a drop of 8.8%. The wholesale value also decreased by 3.9%, from €5.5 million in the second quarter in 2011 to €5.3 million this year.

The volume of fresh vegetables fell by 9.5% to 10.9 million kilograms over the comparative quarter in 2011. Declines were registered in the supply of potatoes (-28.3%), cauliflowers (-11.6%), sugar melons (-13.3%) and dry onions (-32.8%).

The wholesale value of fresh vegetables registered a drop of 3.9% to €4.3 million in the second quarter this year.

Fresh fruit supply declined marginally by 0.1%, mainly on account of a decrease in the availability of peaches (-50.5%) and lemons (-26.3%).

These declines were compensated for with increases of 28.4 and 47.8% in the supply of early figs and Strawberries respectively. The wholesale value of fresh fruit decreased by 3.5% to €1.0 million.

Maltese farmers supplied 11.2 million kilograms (-7.8%) of fresh fruit and vegetables, yielding €4.9 million. Overall, farmers on the mainland contributed 93% of the total amount of fruit and vegetables on the market.

Gozitan farmers supplied the remaining 6.8%, amounting to 0.8 million kilograms of fresh fruit and vegetables. The wholesale value decreased by 12.6% over the comparative period in 2011.

The quarterly 'All Items' fresh fruit price index for the second quarter increased by 1.27 points ( 1.1%) to stand at 120.15 points while the fresh fruit volume index edged down by 0.2 points or 0.1% to 156.46 points.

The quarterly 'All Items' fresh vegetables price index increased by 5.66 points ( 5.7%) from 99.31 points in the second quarter of 2011 to 104.97 points this year.

On the other hand, the 'All Items' fresh vegetables volume index decreased by 11.36 points (-9.5%) to 107.97 points in the second quarter of 2012.