European production is on the rise...
Eggplant, bell pepper and zucchini production in the European Union (EU-28) is dominated by Spain and Italy. In Spain, peppers lead the way with an annual harvest of more than 1.2 million tons, up 19% from ten years ago. Much of this increase has been due to the development of yields and greenhouse crops, of which almost 11,000 hectares are now concentrated in Andalusia, in the province of Almeria. In this region, the development of this type of cultivation has also enabled Spain to increase its production of zucchini (+76% in ten years, to 590,000 tons) and eggplant (+29%, to 235,000 tons). Almeria therefore supplies 55% of Spanish bell pepper production, but also nearly 80% of zucchini production (on 8,000 hectares) and 75% of eggplant production (on 2,200 hectares).
In Italy, the production of zucchini is equivalent to that of Spain (nearly 590,000 tonnes). On the other hand, growth, which has been more moderate (+7% in ten years), is mainly due to the increase in the area dedicated to greenhouses (+49% in ten years), which now accounts for 24% of total surface area (compared with 17% ten years ago), i.e. 4,500 hectares out of the 18,900 hectares devoted to this vegetable. Italy also remains Europe's leading producer of eggplant, despite a significant drop in production over the past 10 years (-9% to 313,000 tons). This decline is attributable to the sharp fall in open-field production (-25% to 8,100 hectares), with an increasing proportion of harvests being obtained in greenhouses (27%, or 5 points more than ten years ago). Italian bell pepper production has also been declining over the last ten years due to the reduction in open-field production (-27% to 8,500 hectares). Conversely, the area allocated to greenhouse production has increased (+11% to 2,100 hectares).