Portugal: a rebound in exports of tomato products

Despite a recovery in its exports of tomato pastes and canned tomatoes, the Portuguese tomato processing industry, still heavily focused on the European market, recorded a significant decline in its export revenue after two exceptional years boosted by the Covid effect.

In a generally upward trend in global trade of tomato pastes in recent years (see additional information at the end of the article), Portuguese exports in the sector paradoxically experienced a fairly sharp erosion of annual performance and a decline in their share of the global market until 2023/2024, before rebounding in the last marketing year ending in June 2025.

With nearly 248,000 tons of tomato pastes (HS codes 200290) exported between July 2024 and June 2025, the result for the marketing year is 12% (25,800 tons) higher than that of 2023/2024, which should be noted as the lowest in the last ten years; with this latest result, Portuguese tomato paste producers have raised activity to a level close (+1%) to the average of the last three years (245,800 tons).

Most of the increase comes from a recovery in exports to Western EU markets, the preferred outlet for Portuguese products: sales to Germany increased by 16,500 tons last year, those to Italy by 8,500 tons, to Spain by 7,300 tons and to the Netherlands by 6,800 tons. A few marginal decreases – approximately 700 tons in total, in the French and Finnish markets – did not impact the annual gain, which amounts to nearly 41,000 tons of finished products. On a broader level, other decreases were recorded in Saudi Arabia (-3,577 t), Oman (-3,943 t), Japan (-6,000 t), Serbia (-1,404 t), and occasionally in other regions that import Portuguese tomato pastes, none of which, however, affected the overall growth momentum for the year. These results should be considered in conjunction with the summary sheet dedicated to the Portuguese sector published in the “Country Profile” section of our Tomato News website.

The European focus of Portuguese exports of tomato products, which is very pronounced in the tomato paste sector (more than 82% of volumes over the last five years), is even more evident in the canned tomatoes sector: from 2020/2021 to 2024/2025, nearly 94% of Portuguese exports of canned tomatoes (HS code 200210) were destined for European markets. Last year, this sector accounted for 39,300 tons of finished products, an annual increase of 20% (+6,500 tons) compared to the previous year’s figure, which was one of the lowest in the last ten years. Very significant annual variations have characterized Portuguese activity in this highly competitive sector, which has experienced sluggish growth globally in recent years: ultimately, the quantities of canned tomatoes exported by Portuguese processors in 2024/2025 showed a decrease of approximately 2,100 tons (-5%) compared to the average of the three previous marketing years.

The increases between the last two years mainly came, logically, from European markets: Portuguese sales of canned tomatoes increased by 2,200 tons in the German market, by 2,800 tons in the Italian market, by 3,500 tons in the British market, and by a few hundred tons in the Polish and Lithuanian markets. The only significant decrease affected exports to the Spanish market, which fell by 2,500 tons.

A comparison with the 2024 calendar year data presented on the Tomato News website in the “Portugal” summary sheet reveals a spectacular recovery in export activity in the canned goods sector during the first half of 2025.

Over the past five marketing years, nearly 95% of the quantities of sauces and ketchup (HS code 210320) exported by the Portuguese processing industry were delivered to a European country, mainly in Western EU and non-EU Europe; the volumes involved represented just over 54,000 tons of finished products in 2024/2025, a figure down by 5,400 tons (-9%) compared to the previous year and 18% lower than the average of the three preceding years.

The main customer countries for Portuguese sauces account for the majority of these decreases, with the United Kingdom accounting for 4,500 tons and Germany for 1,100 tons.

Due to the combined effect of lower export volumes and product prices, Portuguese export revenues from tomato pastes (€335 million) recorded an 11% decrease in 2024/2025 compared to the 2023/2024 fiscal year (€376 million), while still remaining 5% higher than the average for the 2021/2022-2023/2024 period (€320 million). Last year, export sales of canned tomatoes (€26.4 million) increased by 2% compared to the previous year, while revenue generated by sauce exports (€64 million) fell by 20%.

Ultimately, exports of tomato products brought in €426 million for Portugal in 2024/2025, a figure significantly lower (-12%) than that of the 2023/2024 fiscal year (€482 million), but very close to the average of the three previous years (€420 million).

The largest contributors to this result are European countries, primarily the United Kingdom, whose purchases of tomato products generated more than 99 million Euros for the Portuguese industry last year; followed by German purchases, mostly of tomato pastes, totaling 64 million Euros. During the same period, Japan spent 50 million Euros on its supplies of Portuguese tomato products, overwhelmingly concentrate, the Netherlands 44 million, Spain 42 million, Italy 26 million, and so on. In total, of the 426 million Euros generated last year by Portuguese exports of tomato products (see additional information), 245 million (57%) came from sales to Western EU countries, 104 million (25%) from sales to non-EU European markets, 54 million (13%) from sales to Far Eastern countries, and 13 million (3%) from sales to Eastern EU countries: the thirteen other trading regions (Middle East, Central America, West Africa, etc.) accounted for only 11 million Euros, or approximately 2.5% of the total revenue from Portuguese exports.

Some complementary data

Evolution of global exports of tomato paste over the last ten years.

Regional breakdown of sales revenue from Portuguese exports of tomato products in 2024/2025.

Evolution of the quantities of processing tomatoes processed by the Portuguese industry.

Excerpt from the “Country Profile” of Portugal on the Tomato News website: annual trade balance in quantities (tons) and value (Millions USD) for the three product categories from 2020 to 2024 (annual and three-year variations).

Sources: Trade Data Monitor, WPTC