According to the results of the MY 2022/23, Egypt became the third largest supplier of carrots to the EU market, increasing its exports in this direction by several times, EastFruit reports. A total of 12,000 tons of carrots were delivered from Egypt to the EU countries from July 2022 to June 2023.
This volume is the highest in the history of Egyptian exports. Moreover, it is thirty-three times as high as in the previous season and almost seven-fold higher than the last season of peak deliveries (2018/19). Egyptian carrots were exported to the EU market, as before, mainly in spring and early summer.
The growth of Egyptian exports to the EU was accompanied by an overall increase in carrot imports in this market due to problems with the local harvest. For example, in Poland, the carrot harvest in 2022 decreased by 8%, and prices by May 2023 reached a historical record of $1.10/kg1!
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At the same time, Poland, importing 11,600 tons of carrots from countries outside the EU, became the fourth largest importer of this product in the European Union. In total, 126,000 tons of carrots were imported into the EU countries from outside its borders for the 2022/23 season, i.e. two and a half times more than for the period from July 2021 to June 2022. Romania, the Netherlands, and Bulgaria were among the top three importers among the EU countries.
Turkey remained the leader in supplying carrots to the EU market for the fourth season in a row with a volume of 39,000 tons, and Israel ranked second (12,000 tons). While Turkey was present on the EU market almost all year round, Egypt and Israel increased their exports from the second half of the season.
Serbia and the UK were respectively the fourth and fifth largest exporters of carrots to the EU. Both these countries mainly focused on deliveries to neighboring countries: most of the carrots from Serbia went to Hungary and Croatia, and the UK exported it mainly to Ireland.
A serious shortage of carrots forced importers from the EU to look for completely new sources of imports last season. Thus, 9,600 tons of carrots were imported from Belarus and Russia during this period, and almost 1 thousand tons – from three Central Asian countries (Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan). Suppliers of carrots from Morocco and some other countries (China, Costa Rica, Switzerland, etc.) were also able to significantly increase their presence.
