The volume and wholesale value of fresh fruit and vegetables decreased by 2.4 and 13.2 per cent respectively in the second quarter, when compared to the corresponding period in 2009.

The National Statistics Office said that fresh fruit and vegetable supplies for the second quarter of 2010 stood at 11.9 million kilogrammes, a drop of 2.4 per cent over the comparative period in 2009. Concurrently, the wholesale value decreased by 13.2 per cent, to €5.6 million.

The supply of fresh vegetables went down by 2.9 per cent to 11.1 million kilogrammes.

Declines were registered in the supply of sugar melons (-28.1 per cent), lettuce (-20.7 per cent), cauliflowers (-17.2 per cent) and vegetable marrows (-6.2 per cent). The supply of tomatoes and watermelons went up by 19.1 and 11.9 per cent respectively.

The wholesale value of fresh vegetables fell by 15.8 per cent and amounted to €4.5 million.

During the second quarter, the supply of fresh fruit rose by 4.8 per cent, mainly on account of an increase in the availability of strawberries on the market (+28.8 per cent).

In contrast, the wholesale value of fresh fruit dropped by 1.2 per cent, to €1.1 million.

Maltese farmers supplied 11 million kilogrammes of fresh fruit and vegetables, yielding €5.1 million.

Overall, farmers on the mainland contributed 92.4 per cent of the total amount of fruit and vegetables on the market.

On the other hand, Gozitan farmers contributed 0.9 million kilogrammes of fresh fruit and vegetables, or 7.6 per cent of the total supply.

Over the comparative period in 2009, the supply and wholesale value of fresh fruit and vegetables declined by 3.7 and 15.6 per cent respectively.

The quarterly 'all items' fresh fruit price index for the second quarter dropped by 28.17 points (-15.4 per cent) to stand at 155.03 points.

This was mainly attributable to the quarterly fresh fruit volume index, which advanced by 5.72 points, or 4.8 per cent, to 124.66.

The quarterly 'all items' fresh vegetable price index declined by 20.72 points (-16.6 per cent) from 125.19 in the second quarter of 2009 to 104.47 this year.

Similarly, the 'all items' fresh vegetable volume index dropped by 3.22 points (-2.9 per cent) to 109.41 in 2010.