It said that according to the website, hortoinfo.es, the volume of tomato sales experienced a reduction of 8.37 per cent, while global prices increased by 18.81 per cent. The figures were gathered by compiling information from the United Nations Statistics Division and from the Integrated Tariff of the European Communities.

Mexico, the Netherlands and Spain account for almost half of the world's fresh tomatoes exports, accounting for 46.41 per cent of the total volume harvested worldwide in 2015.

Mexico exported 1,560.59 million kilos, the Netherlands exported 1,010.52 million kilos and Spain exported 950 million kilos. Almería, Spain's largest tomato producer region, accounted for 546.83 million kilos, about 57.56 per cent of Spain's total export volume.

Mexican tomatoes' main destination was the United States, with the country exporting almost all of its foreign sales (99.34 per cent or approximately 1,550.33 million kilos) to the US market.

The Netherlands' tomatoes were mainly exported to Germany (424,147 million kilos), the UK (168.91 million kilos), Italy (60.78 million kilos), Sweden (53.63 million kilos) and the Czech Republic (32.88 million kilos).

Spain exported mainly to Germany (218.61 million kilos), the UK (147.27 million kilos), France (139.3 million kilos), the Netherlands (110.75 million kilos) and Poland (64.69 million kilos).

Source: European Supermarket Magazine, via HortiBiz