Worldwide consumption of tomato products, 2018/2019 (part 2)

Individual consumption and demographic shifts: the drivers of consumption
The slight upturn recorded worldwide has been expressed by a moderate rise in the level of overall individual consumption. During the last marketing year, the average consumer absorbed the equivalent of 5 kg of fresh tomato in processed form, 2% more than on average during the previous three marketing years (4.9 kg/year/pers.), a level that is simply an extension of overall individual consumption over the previous seven years (see appendix). It is therefore necessary to consider the increase in 2018/2019 with a measure of caution, and it should also be noted that this global indication hides significant disparities between the different regions and in terms of progression. 
Without going into details that have already been extensively commented on in previous editions, the 2018/2019 study confirms the very high consumption levels recorded once again in the Western European Union (just under 23.0 kg/year/pers.), in Australia-New Zealand (22.0 kg/year/pers.) and in North America (20.0 kg/year/pers.). Consumption in the regions included in the zones described as the "historic base" of the industry remains much higher than in the group made up of central European regions (eastern EU (14.0 kg/year/pers.) and non-Community Europe (12.0 kg/year/pers.)) and the “Mediterranean” (Middle East (13.5 kg/year/pers.), and Mediterranean Africa (11 kg/year/pers.)). As for the other regions, their consumption of tomato products in 2018/2019 did not exceed 8.0 kg/year/pers. (South America) and dwindled to the very low values recorded in the Indian Peninsula (0.2 kg/year/person).

This description of the global situation must be accompanied by contrasting observations in terms of annual development and regional growth drivers. For many of the regions already mentioned among those that drove the rapid growth of the early 2000s, the growth rates determined according to the WPTC study model are actually higher than those of the "historical" group that includes North America and Europe (CAGR 1.36% over the period running 2011/2012 to 2018/2019).
For these emerging regions, the development of consumption has more often been driven by population growth than by an increase in individual consumption, as is indeed the case on a global scale. The strong growth dynamics of the Far East (2.3%), the Eastern EU (3.6%), Australia-New Zealand (2.4%), non-European Europe (2.6 %), the Indian Peninsula (4.2%) and East Africa (5.4%), to name only the most significant, have thus supported an overall development in recent years and even seem to have offset the recorded setbacks in Eurasia and a number of other regions. On this last point, it is important to note that the limits of the study, partly based on trade flows and on declarations of operations, make for difficult interpretation since it is not easy to distinguish on a local scale between a real drop in consumption and a simple slowdown in supply flows.
Ultimately, most of the developments observed can be attributed to population growth, but in certain regions – and not the least important ones, since this seems to be the case in the European Union and the Far East – it is indeed individual consumption and therefore consumer interest in tomato products that supports overall growth.