World tomato production
108 million tonnes of tomatoes were produced during 2002, with the crop being grown across 9.9 million acres in over 160 different countries.
Total world production has increased by over 35% over the last ten years. The biggest producer is China with 25 million tonnes, followed by US with 12.2 million tonnes. The other major growers, with figures above 5 million tonnes, are Turkey, India, Italy and Egypt.
The current average world yield stands at 27t/ha, but highest yields are from European glasshouses where yields can exceed 700t/ha in a season. A high yielding field grown crop of fresh tomatoes with furrow irrigation typically produces between 50-70t/ha.
Around a quarter of the world’s total production is now grown for the processing industry. This is nearly double the level of the mid 1980’s. Per capita consumption of processed products averages 5.6kg/year, but this varies from 37.4kg/year in the USA to 0.1kg/year in India. The highest per capita consumers are the Americans, Italians and Canadians. 91% of processing production is in the northern hemisphere.
Biggest processors are the US (largely California) at nearly 10 million tonnes, followed by Italy at just under half this. Spain, Turkey, China, Brazil and Greece are the other main producers and currently process over 1 million tonnes of tomatoes per year. 4.2 million tonnes of fresh tomatoes are exported every year with Spain and Mexico being the major exporting countries. Total world exports of processed tomatoes include 3 million tonnes of juice and 1.8 million tonnes of paste.
