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Box 3: Economic drivers of global tropical fruit demand
....demand for fresh tropical fruits in major consuming regions has been supported by rising incomes.......
Global demand for tropical fruits is shaped by relatively high elasticities for price as well as for income.
Available data show a strong relationship between changes in income and demand for tropical fruits in the major import destinations, namely the United States
of America and the EU, particularly for pineapple, mango and, to some extent, papaya. On the back of rising incomes in both importing zones, per capita availability of the four major fresh tropical fruits in terms of retail weight has increased at annual average rates ranging from 6 to 10 percent between 1990 and 2017. Similarly, demand for fresh tropical fruits in major consuming regions has been supported by rising incomes, as for example witnessed in India and Brazil, where mango and papaya consumption is expanding among an increasingly affluent population. Accordingly, demand for tropical fruits is observed to be particularly susceptible to income shocks and changes in own prices relative to those of other fruits, including temperate varieties,
or other food items, whereby a sudden increase in the relative price of a tropical fruit or a shock in income could lead to substitution by other fruits or food items. By contrast, import demand for avocado has exhibited much more resilience to changes in income, especially over the past decade, as demonstrated by its uninterrupted robust growth in both major import destinations, the United States of America and the EU.
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FOOD OUTLOOK NOVEMBER 2017
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