Fruit and veg sales rocketing downwards

Sales of fresh fruit and vegetables decreased rapidly last year, with salad items seeing a rise in popularity attributed to 2013’s warm summer and the recent mild winter.

Britons bought 91,000 tonnes fewer vegetables and nearly 40,000 tonnes less fruit in 2013 than the year before, although price rises mean that in value terms they are growing. The figures, released by consumer experts Kantar Worldpanel, indicate the volume decline in sales of vegetables was driven by potatoes, which saw aggressive price inflation throughout last year.

The drop in sales could also be attributed to greater awareness of food waste, with recent Government figures showing that 15 million tonnes of food are discarded every year in the UK.

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Analyst Avneet Chana said: “In value terms fruit, veg and salads are all growing. In volume terms fruit and vegetables are declining whilst salads are growing. Salad’s surprisingly strong volume growth this year is attributed in part due to the exceptionally warm summer of 2013.”

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