Last year, the proportion of vegetables grown domestically in the UK was lower than ever. Only slightly more than half (53%) of domestic consumption of fresh vegetables came from the UK
The downtrend has been going on for a long time and has been going on for about ten years. the figure was even 87%, according to Jan Kees Boon from facts about fruits and vegetables.
The share of fruits grown domestically in the United Kingdom has increased slightly in recent years, reaching 17% in 2018. Around 1990, it still accounted for more than 20%, and after the milestone fell to less than 10%.
In recent years, the area on which vegetables are grown in the United Kingdom has been quite stable - about 115 thousand hectares. It has been more for a number of years since the turn of the century. In the 80s and 90s. the English vegetable zone was significantly larger.
Since the beginning of the century, vegetable production has ranged from 2.4 to 2.8 million tons. Before that, there were more (3.2 million tons in the 1980s).
Spain is the main foreign supplier of the United Kingdom. Last year, just under 20% of all vegetables in the UK were from Spain. Holland was the second with a share of 12%, of which 9% of the Dutch product and 3% of re-export through the Netherlands.
