In the European Union (EU), just over 2.3 million hectares were devoted to the production of fruit and berries and another 2.1 million hectares to the production of vegetables.
With 636,000 hectares (or 27.1% of the EU total) devoted to the production of fruit, Spain was the leading EU Member State in terms of production area of fruit in 2015, while it was Italy (420 000 hectares, or 20.2%) for vegetables, states Eurostat, EU’s statistical office.
Apples were the most produced fruit in the EU in terms of quantity, with 12.7 million tons harvested in 2015 (or almost 25 kg per EU inhabitant), and tomatoes (17.7 million tons, or 35 kg per EU inhabitant) were the main vegetable.
Poland harvested one in every four apples produced in the EU in 2015 (with 25.0% of total EU harvested production), ahead of Italy (19.2%) and France (15.5%).
Spain (34.4%), Italy (32.9%) and Greece (23.2%) produced together almost all (90%) EU peaches. Spain (29.0%) was also the main EU producer of strawberries in 2015, followed by Poland (15.6%), Germany (12.5%) and Italy (10.4%).
For cherries, Poland was the main EU producer (25.8%), followed by Italy (12.6%), Spain (10.7%) and Greece (10.0%).
Together, Italy (36.3% of total EU production) and Spain (27.4%) supplied in 2015 almost two thirds of tomatoes produced in the EU.
They were followed by Portugal (8.0%), Greece (6.2%), the Netherlands (5.0%), France and Poland (both 4.5%).
Three Member States accounted also for around two-thirds of the cucumbers harvested in the
EU in 2015: Spain (29.1%), Poland (17.7%) and the Netherlands (17.1%).
The production of carrots in the EU was more dispersed across Member States, with the top producers in 2015 being the UK (14.2%), Poland (13.1%), the Netherlands (10.9%), France (10.8%), Italy (10.3%) and Germany (10.2%).
As for courgettes, they were principally harvested in two Member States: Spain (37.6%) and Italy (37.1%).
