Exporting dried fruits to the United Kingdom

What makes the United Kingdom an interesting market for dried fruit?

The United Kingdom is the largest European importer of dried fruit and the largest world consumer of dried grapes. The products with rising demand are prunes, dried apples, dehydrated tropical fruit and dried superfruit.

Imports

High growth of imports of dried fruit from developing countries to the United Kingdom

  • The annual growth of dried fruit import value in the United Kingdom is significantly higher for imports from developing countries than imports from other countries.
  • Total imports of dried fruits to the United Kingdom grew by 5.3% in value reaching €446 million in 2015. Imports in quantity grew by 2% reaching 180 thousand tonnes. Faster growth in value than in volume is largely influenced by the higher prices of dried apricots and grapes imported from Turkey.
  • It seems that in the long term there will be difficulties in supplying demanded quantities of dried fruit. There is a higher demand than current supply of dried fruit in the United Kingdom market in recent years due to lower harvests in main production regions. This is also in part influenced by exporters’ focus on other growing markets such as Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Product specific forecasts

Dried pineapples, papayas and mangoes: Tropical dehydrated fruit is in high demand and many buyers in the United Kingdom currently cannot satisfy their needs. Prices are also increasing. In the long term production of tropical dehydrated fruit can provide opportunities for developing countries which are willing to start production and to compete with the major suppliers such as Thailand. This opportunity is especially relevant for natural dried tropical fruit where no sugar is added. 

Fuente: Extract from CBI Foreign Office


Tags: dehydrated tropical fruitsdried pineapplesdried superfruitexportingUnited Kigdom