Reporting On... - Revista F&H

France surpasses 2 kilos
of avocado a year
THE FRENCH CONSUMERS CONSUME 2.2
KILOS OF AVOCADO PER CAPITA A yEAR.
THIS FIGURE HAS BEEN CONSTANT DUR-
ING THE LAST THREE yEARS. SPAIN IS ITS
MAIN SUPPLIER WITH NEARLy 24,000
TONS.
By Daniel Lafuente
Torregrosa
revista@fyh.es
France is not a producing
country of avocado, nevertheless,
it is not an obstacle
to be one of the fruits preferred
by the French consumers
with an average of 2.2 kilos
a year. In fact, the French
operators are the greatest
importers of avocado of the
Old World with volumes of
around 95,000 tons annually
only surpassed by the imports
of the great companies
of the United States.
In 2009, the value of the operations
of import was 224
million dollars, which means
15.19 per cent of the worldwide
imports, where big part
of the avocados consumed in
France comes from Spain, Israel,
South Africa (Kenya) or
the countries of South America
(Peru, Chile, Mexico, Paraguay
and Argentina, among
others).
The central market of Rungis
is one of the main doors to receive
this subtropical product
to be supplied later, mainly,
to Paris and surroundings,
not in vain in 2009 the sales
of avocados reached 11,500
tons, being Hass the dominant
variety. However, they
are not the best figures of the
last five years since in 2007
the total of the avocados
commercialized in Rungis
reached 15,750 tons, 27 per
cent more than in 2009.
Consumption. There are habits
of consumption of avocados
that do not change in
France. Christmas and spring
rEprEsEnTATIon of ThE IMporTs of
AvocADo To frAncIA 2010.
Dominican
Republic
1,1%
México
4,6%
Israel
6,5%
Chile
6,8%
Others
7,6%
South Africa
7,6% Kenya
8,2%
are the periods of greater
consumption, although at
the present time the French
consumers consume avocados
during 12 months.
The tendency of the consumption
is to increase from the
middle of the decade of 2000
and in 2010 it was already 2.2
kilos per capita with an average
price of market of 2.7 Euros/kilo.
This figure of consumption
has kept constant
during the campaign but not
the price in the market which
was 2,9 Euros/kilo.
The cost of avocado per family
has kept stable for years,
being approximately six Euros
which shows that the avocado
has succeeded among
the French families.
Although the kind of custom-
Spain
25,0%
Italy
8,7%
Holland
10,1%
Peru
13,8%
Source: Eurostat.
Markets
ers who buy avocado sometimes
changes, the purchases
of this fruit in volume were
good during the last campaign.
In fact, in the end, the
balance of the sales of avocado
was successful in most
of the stores.
Distribution. Nearly three
quarter parts of the sales of
these fruit are done in the
retailers (72 per cent of the
volume for the supermarkets,
supermarkets, small supermarkets
and discounts).
In 2009, the sales in retailers
increased slightly respecting
to the average of the years
2006-2008 (72 per cent opposite
to the previous 71.4
per cent), due to the good
results of the supermarkets
and the discounts that compensated
the loss of speed of
the small supermarkets and
supermarkets.
The share of sales of avocados
of the discounts increased to
12.7 per cent in 2009 opposite
to 11.4 per cent in the period
2006-2008.
The import. In 2010 the
imports of avocado of the
French operators surpassed
the threshold of 93,000 tons.
Indeed, the imported volumes
were 93,190 tons, which
meant an increase of 11.3 per
cent respecting 2009, but a
decrease of 9.4 per cent if it is
compared with the average of
the years 2007-2008.
F&H International 1 • November 2011
15