2022 SPECIALTY CROP AUTOMATION REPORT
4.2 TRENDS AND DYNAMICS IN EUROPE
When asked about their key challenges, European growers identified labor availability (chosen by 54 percent of survey respondents), profitability (margin pressure driven by rising costs) (31 percent) and worker safety (15 percent) as their top challenges. This is similar to data from U.S. growers, where profitability (chosen by 44 percent) and labor availability (25 percent) were also the top two challenges, followed by regu- latory hurdles (17 percent). These challenges, along with reg- ulatory hurdles and rising costs, are creating an increasingly difficult environment for growing specialty crops in Europe. Due to the above mentioned challenges, there has been notable crop migration within Europe and to countries outside of Europe over the past decade. Specialty crop production and agricultural gross value add have fluctuated
within Europe’s top producing countries during this period, and there have been a number of other changes, which are discussed in the following paragraphs. Overall consumption of fruits and vegetables in Europe has risen slowly since 2011. The annual growth rate has been below 1 percent, with an approximately 6 percent overall increase between 2011 and 2021 (see Figure 24). 55 Consumption per capita has fluctuated between 270 and 290 kg per year between 2011 and 2021, with a fluctuation of 50 grams per day. As production in Europe remained relatively stable and exports increased only slightly over the period, consumption growth is driven mainly by rising imports, which more than offset the rise in exports.
FRUIT AND VEGETABLE CONSUMPTION IN THE EU HAS GROWN STEADILY AT 0.6% PER YEAR SINCE 2011, WITH CONSUMPTION PER CAPITA FLUCTUATING BETWEEN 270-290 KG PER YEAR
CAGR %Change
Fresh fruit & vegetable consumption 2011-2021
Tons Consumed Per Capita Population (m)
0.28 440
0.27 441
0.27 444
0.27 446
0.28 446
0.29
0.5% +0.2%
+5% +1%
447
+0.6% +6.4%
Millions Tons
140 120 100
Imports
+2.4%
+26%
80 60 40 20 0
Production
+0.4%
+4%
Exports
+1.2%
+13%
-20 -40 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
Source: Eurostat, Roland Berger Figure 24: Consumption of fruit and vegetable since 2011 [million tons]; consumption per capita of fresh fruit and vegetables [tons per capita]
55 EU trade since 1999 by SITC | Eurostat
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