Trade, import and export of Asparagus

Italy is a small exporter of asparagus in the world: approximately 1,000 tons of asparagus are exported worldwide, while, regardig the import of asparagus, Italy imports about 5,000 tons of asparagus, especially from Spain, with an outlay of about 14.8 million euros in 2010. Despite this, Italy is a great producer of green asparagus. In Europe, the progressive icrease in the consumption of green asparagus, rather than the white one, could therefore be an opportunity for Italy, which ranks first for its production: indeed it could raise the offer to export asparagus in Europe, as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Holland and other countries oF Central and Northern EuropE, tend more and more to increase the consumption of green asparagus at the expense of the white asparagus which is experiencing a slight decline in the import and in the export of white asparagus.
Germany consumes a lot of asparagus and, apart from a high production of asparagus, it imports a lot of asparagus from Spain and from Greece, while for the moment imports very little quantities from Italy.
As regards the trade of asparagus in the world, Italy is an importer of asparagus, with about 5,000 tons of asparagus imported and an exporter of asparagus with 2,400 tons (average2006-2010) of asparagus exported. The 83% of the product imported in Italy comes from Europe, while the 16% comes from America.
The leading European supplier for the import and export of asparagus remains Spain, with the 48,4% of the total Spanish production of asparagus; followed by France with the 15% of the total production of asparagus, Greece with the 13.7% of the total production of asparagus and Germany with the 13.4% of the total production of asparagus.
The totality of the export of asparagus produced, is directed to European countries (and especially to countries acceding to the European Union), in particular to Germany (21%), which, despite being a great producer of asparagus imports, in any case many asparagus, from Austria (16,3%), from Denmark (15,5%) and from France (12%). In the period 2005-2009, the leading exporter of asparagus country was Peru, with an average volume of 100,174 tons of exported asparagus, the 39% of its total production of asparagus. Peru is followed by Mexico, with more than 58,000 tons (22,7%) of exported asparagus, while, ranking third, there are the United States, with approximately 21,000 tons (8%) of export of asparagus in the world.

From 2005 to 2009 instead the first country importer of asparagus worldwide were the U.S. with about 130,000 tons (47%) of imports of green and white asparagus, followed by Germany with 25,000 tons (9%) of imported asparagus, and Canada, with little more than 18.000 tons of imports of asparagus.