Greece has by far the highest consumption of tomatoes, at 166.8kg per capita in 2006. This is followed by Egypt and Turkey, where consumption was recorded at 86.6 and 82.2 kg per capita. Consumption was also high in Portugal and Italy according to Euromonitor’s research.
Asia Pacific currently sells the largest volume of tomatoes, 44.5 million tonnes in 2006, of which 26.3 million tonnes were sold in China. Over the past five years Taiwan, South Korea and Indonesia have all witnessed strong growth in the per capita consumption of tomatoes, at 28.9 per cent, 28.6 per cent and 24.1 per cent respectively from 2001 to 2006. The consumption of tomatoes in South-East Asia has been encouraged over recent years due to the high levels of vitamins they contain, in order to help combat malnutrition in the region.
Total global sales of tomatoes will increase by 17.8 per cent, to 1.18 billion tonnes, by 2011. Eastern Europe is predicted to witness strong growth in tomato consumption over the next five years, according to Euromonitor International’s forecasts. Tomato consumption in Romania will increase by an impressive 43 per cent between 2006 and 2011, reaching 55.9 kg per capita by 2011. This is followed by China, at 29.4 per cent, and Bulgaria at 23.8 per cent. Euromonitor International forecasts that there will be a dramatic drop in the US in the consumption of tomatoes over this five year period.  Although the US will still record high sales, of 7.7 million tonnes of tomatoes, consumption looks set to decline by over 13 per cent to 29.7 kg per capita by 2011.