CONSUMPTION OF FRUIT AND VEGETABLES IN POLAND IN THE CONTEXT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES (EU-27)

Abstract

The aimed of the research at presenting the volume and the diversification of the consumption of fruit and vegetables (F&V) in the 27 European Union (EU-27) countries during the 2010-2021 period, and was prepared the typology of countries, based on the consumption pattern of those products. The data on the F&V consumption volume in the EU-27 countries were taken from the food balances of FAO. The analysis shows that the F&V consumption volume in the analysed period was different. The annual F&V consumption in the 2019-2021 period in Poland was 200.1 kg/per capita and was by 5% higher than in the 2010-2021 period. Some huge disproportions in the F&V consumption volume were noticed among such countries as: Croatia, the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as Czech Republic, Latvia, Cyprus, Hungary, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Lithuania. The significant changes in the F&V consumption volume that took place in the 2019-2021 period, compared to the 2010-2012 period, can be noticed in such countries as Croatia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, as well as Hungary, Slovenia and Germany. In the 2019-2021 period, in 6 of the EU-27 countries, the consumption of fruit decreased: it happened in Luxembourg, Italy, Croatia, Sweden, Denmark and Malta. The same thing happened to the consumption of vegetables in 8 countries: Greece, Italy, Portugal, Malta, Spain, Romania, Cyprus and Lithuania. Currently, the F&V consumption volume in the EU-27 countries corresponds to the recommendations of WHO. The Polish society, in terms of its F&V consumption volume in the macro-economic scale, was most similar to many societies of the Central Europe (i.e. Latvia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Hungary, Slovakia and Bulgaria), as well as to the society of Cyprus (in those countries, in the 2019-2021 period, the F&V consumption volume was 180.9 kg/per capita/year).