Markets and Trade

Tropical fruits

Value and growth of tropical fruits

Global production of tropical fruits has been growing steadily over the past decade, predominantly in response to growing demand in major producer areas. While tropical fruits play a small role in global agricultural trade in volume terms overall, accounting for a mere 3 percent of world agricultural food products exports, their high average export unit value of well above USD 1 000 per tonne places them as the third most valuable fruit group globally, behind bananas and apples. Trade in tropical fruits generates substantial income to smallholder producers, as well as significant export earnings for many of the producing countries, thereby contributing to their food security.

Commodity in focus

Global trade in tropical fruits has expanded to unprecedented heights in recent years, reaching an estimated aggregate export volume of close to 11 million tonnes in 2023. Strong demand growth in key importing countries has led to ample investments in improving productivity and expanding production areas in supplying countries, notably for avocados.

Takeaways:

An estimated 99 percent of tropical fruit production originates in developing countries, predominantly in Asia and Latin America and a smaller share in Africa.

In most producing zones, tropical fruits continue to be cultivated at the subsistence rather than the commercial level.

The combined exports of the four major tropical fruits represent only 5 percent of total production volume, and the remainder is consumed or otherwise utilized domestically.


Did you know?

  • With around 2 700 species, tropical fruits are not only a source of nutrition, but also of income generation for farmers who produce them for export. 

  • In global commodity trade, tropical fruits constitute a comparatively new group and since 1970, they have emerged as significant in the international marketplace. 

  • Export volumes of fresh tropical fruits display the fastest average annual growth rates among internationally traded food commodities. 

  • Advances in transportation, trade agreements and shifting consumer preferences in favour of these fruits led to trade growth. 

  • Tropical fruits are highly perishable during production and distribution, and so environmental challenges are among the key obstacles to sustaining production and ensuring that international markets are supplied. 

  • Increasingly, erratic weather events are a particularly acute challenge to growing tropical fruits because the vast majority are produced on smallholder farms of less than 5 ha where cultivation is highly dependent on rainfall.

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