UK has EU's lowest supply of fruit and veggies

British consumers have the lowest supply of fresh fruit and vegetables in the 27-member state European Union, a report said on Friday.

In a report analysing consumption and production trends since 2000, the EU's statistics agency Eurostat pointed to considerable variations of different types of fresh fruit and vegetables that consumers could buy across the EU.

"Per capita availability of fruit and vegetables was highest in Greece and France and lowest in Lithuania and the United Kingdom," the report said, referring to product availability and "gross human apparent consumption".

Oranges were the item most available to EU consumers between 2000 and 2006 at an average 29 kg per inhabitant, then apples at 19 kg, fresh tomatoes at 12 kg. Grapes and fresh peaches weighed in with an average availability of 6 kg each.

But there were also considerable differences around EU countries in pricing and average retail availability of different fruits and vegetables, the Eurostat report said.

For apples, for example, Bulgarians were able to buy about 7 kg each whereas Danes could buy 94 kg. For fresh tomatoes, the range was from 3 kg a head in Lithuania to 60 kg in Greece.

Retail prices varied widely: in 2006, for example, fruit and vegetable prices were around half the EU average in Bulgaria and about one-third above the average in Ireland.

The European Union is a major player in world horticulture and grows a huge range of products, from cabbages and turnips in northern Europe to citrus in Greece.

In terms of volume, Spain and Italy are by far the most important EU fruit and vegetable producers, followed by countries like France and Poland. Greece, Portugal and Germany also have significant fruit and vegetable industries.

Much has changed on the supply/demand side, especially from 2004 with the arrival of 10 new producer states in the EU, notably Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Poland is a key player in the global soft fruit industry. It ranks as the world's third largest producer of blueberries and gooseberries, the fourth for raspberries and sour cherries and sixth for strawberries.