British importers buy relatively small quantities of citrus and tropical juice directly from origin. They mostly import from other European suppliers. Spain is gaining a bigger share of the British market, with an annual export growth of 16%. García Carrión ­( Don Simon brand) is 1 of the leading Spanish suppliers to the British market. Aside from Brazil, the supply from developing countries is small, but some countries – such as the Philippines (coconut water and concentrated pineapple), Thailand (pineapple) and Mexico (lime) – are increasing their exports to the United Kingdom. The leading supplier of citrus and tropical juices to Italy is the Netherlands, with a 28% share. The Netherlands mainly supplies Italy with concentrated pineapple juice of Thai and Indonesian origin. Other strong European suppliers are Spain (mandarin and lemon juice) and Germany (mostly orange juice of Brazilian origin). Developing country suppliers gaining share on the Italian market are Brazil (concentrated orange), South Africa (concentrated orange and lemon), Bolivia (lemon), Egypt (mango), Mexico (lime) and the Philippines (concentrated pineapple). To find out more about general trends, read our study about Trends on the European Processed Fruit and Vegetables Market. Immunity-boosting and functional drinks The smoothie market has been dominated by one brand and prices have been ruthlessly high,” said Richard Cawood, marketing manager at Don Simon owner J Garcia Carrión. According to the German Juice Association, orange flavour accounts for 1 quarter of the retail sales of juices and nectars. The real share of consumption is larger (more than one-third), as it includes additional quantities in freshly squeezed oranges, smoothies and other drinks. Citrus and tropical juices are very popular ingredients in juice mixes with the addition of vitamins, called multi-vitamin juices. Their use as an ingredient in smoothies, functional drinks and flavoured waters is also increasing fast.

Find French juice processing, bottling and trading companies among the members of the French Juice Association (UNIJUS). The Netherlands is by far Europe’s largest importer of citrus and tropical juices. Since 2016, imports increased at an average annual rate of 6%, reaching a record 1.05 billion litres in 2020. However, it is estimated that around 90% of all imported citrus and tropical juices are re-exported to other destinations, primarily Germany and France. The remaining 10% is consumed domestically, which means that the Netherlands is actually a rather small market. Entering the German juice market is challenging, as import is concentrated among and dominated by only a few large industrial suppliers. Although there are more than 300 juice bottlers in Germany, most of them do not import raw material directly, but are supplied through big traders. The leading citrus and tropical juice importers and industry suppliers in Germany include Döhler and Austrian companies with facilities in Germany – Agrana (Agrana Fruit Germany) and Grünewald (Ernteband Fruchtsaft). Examples of other industry suppliers are Carrière, Johs.Thoms, Saprex and Juice Trade.The recent outbreak of COVID-19 has contributed to the development of many immunity-boosting products, including juices. According to research by Mintel, the COVID-19 outbreak has prompted 45% of consumers in Europe to add more nutrients into their diet, while 29% has reported being more interested in foods that can support your immune system since the start of the pandemic. France is the leading European consumer of pineapple juice. Apparent consumption (the difference between imports and exports) of pineapple juice reached 48 thousand tonnes in 2020. Imports of mandarin and lemon juices increased at an average annual rate of 5-6% over the last 5 years, but most of those juices are sourced from Spain and Italy. The import of passion fruit juice increased at a similar rate of 6%, with Peru as the main supplier, followed by Ecuador.

To counteract the downward trend in juice consumption, the industry is turning to new, innovative and sophisticated flavours and mixes. Efforts have focused on the NFC (not-from-concentrate) and smoothie sectors with fruit and vegetable mixes that are lower in sugar and the addition of functional ingredients.

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Evaporation – different types of evaporation equipment are used to remove water from fruit juices. The most common types include the continuous flow of juice through several heated tubes under vacuum. As heat is used to evaporate water from juice, no additional pasteurisation is needed. Some European countries (such as Spain and Italy) produce citrus juices, but production is not sufficient to satisfy local demand. Europe imported 1.8 million tonnes of tropical and citrus juices from non-European countries in 2020. Due to consumers’ concerns about sugar and calories, British consumption of juices decreased until 2019, but it increased in 2020. According to the British Soft Drinks Association, consumption of juices including smoothies and coconut water reached 930 million litres. Citrus and tropical juices make up more than two-thirds of this amount. The most popular flavour is orange with a 63.3% market share in 2020, while pineapple accounts for 3.5%. In nectars, tropical flavours account for a market share of around 4%. The total annual consumption of fruit juices and nectars in Italy is estimated at more than 600 million litres. Due to consumers’ sugar concerns, the consumption of juices has been decreasing since 2015, but this decline slowed down in 2020 under the influence of COVID-19. Consumption of smoothies and fruit-milk drinks is increasing. In the fruit juice category (not counting nectars), orange juice flavour accounts for around 30% (33 million litres), followed by pineapple (22%), tropical (19%) and grapefruit (12%). Organic juices have a market share of around 3.5% in volume.

Brazilian orange juice accounts for nearly 60% of citrus and tropical juice imports. The main reason for such large imports is the presence of Brazilian producing giants in Rotterdam – Cutrale (Continental Juice BV) and Louis Dreyfus. Also, the leading European processor and trader, Döhler, sells large quantities of juices through its Dutch representation (Doehler Holland BV). Examples of other Dutch traders of tropical and citrus juices are SVZ, Ariza (specialised in organic products), Prodalim, Verbruggen Juice Trading and Santos Enterprise Food. This study covers general information that is of interest to producers in developing countries regarding the market for citrus and tropical juices in Europe. Please see Table 1 with the products and their product codes used for statistical analysis. Please note that fruit purees are not included in the statistical analysis, as there is no officially defined statistical code for these products. When ‘Europe’ is referred to in this study, it means the 27 Member States of the European Union, plus the United Kingdom, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland. The largest share of citrus juice trade belongs to orange juice, followed by grapefruit, lemon and lime. Other citrus fruit juices such as mandarin, tangerine, pomelo and yuzu are traded in relatively small quantities. The largest share of tropical juice trade belongs to pineapple juice, followed by passion fruit (maracuja). After orange juice, pineapple juice accounts for the largest import share with 15%, followed by grapefruit juice (5%), lemon juice (4%) and tropical fruit juice (3%). The largest import growth was noted for NFC pineapple juice, for which imports almost doubled in 5 years from 4.1 thousand tonnes in 2016 to 8 thousand tonnes in 2020. Other juices with particularly strong annual import growth were concentrated pineapple (13% average growth), NFC grapefruit juice (12%) and passion fruit (10%).Recovery of aroma – the water removed during evaporation contains aroma essences. To preserve aroma, the first vapours (rich in essence) are commonly taken from the evaporation tubes and condensed. The acquired liquid is further processed to get a concentrated aroma essence. This essence is commonly sold together with the concentrated juice. Juice extraction – extraction is performed in different ways, depending on the fruit type and machine design. Different types of grinders, presses, sieves and other equipment are developed by equipment producers such as Bucher Unipektin, Alfa Laval, JBT and Brown. Citrus processing also includes the extraction of oil from the peel. For some types of juices, enzymes are used to increase the juice yield. Opportunities for emerging suppliers can be found in selling citrus and tropical juices as ingredients for drinks manufacturers. British drinks producers are very innovative, experimenting with new and healthier solutions. For example, the United Kingdom is the largest European market for smoothies. Also, sales of NFC juices are increasing. Other innovations include juice shots (such as with turmeric or ginger) and drinks with functional ingredients (like vitamins, amino acids, kombucha, aloe and cannabidiol). Some of the leading suppliers of tropical juices as ingredients are Symrise (formerly Cobell, as Symrise acquired Cobell), Kenegrade and Gerald McDonald & Company. The United Kingdom is the third-ranked importer of citrus and tropical juices in Europe, with a decreasing import trend until 2019. The average annual import decrease of this category of juices was 3% over the last 5 years. However, in 2020, partially due to the impact of COVID-19, the market started to recover. Imports of most juices increased, reaching 524 thousand tonnes. Orange juice accounts for more than 80% of the entire category. Strong import growth was also noted for NFC pineapple, concentrated orange, mandarin and lemon juices. Brazil is the leading supplier of citrus and tropical juices to Germany, accounting for more than 40% of imports, with orange juice as the main product. The Netherlands is the second supplier with 18%, also with re-exported Brazilian juice as the main product. In fact, orange juice of Brazilian origin represents more than 50% of all citrus and tropical juices on the German market. After Brazil, the leading developing country suppliers to Germany are Costa Rica (mostly pineapple), South Africa (grapefruit), Mexico (frozen orange and lime) and Argentina (lemon).

of the problems that the EU industry is facing is that the statement ‘no added sugar’ is not allowed for fruit juices. However, this statement is allowed for other drinks, which led to the development of many new low-calorie drinks such as flavoured waters and carbonated, energy and other soft drinks. For example, it is expected that energy drink consumption will continue to increase at an average annual rate of more than 6%. Citrus and tropical juices are consumed less often as pure juices and are more often used as ingredients in those drinks. As Europe’s largest markets for citrus and tropical juices, France, Germany and the United Kingdom are interesting focus markets. Spain and Italy, also processors of citrus fruit, are attractive markets because they consume large quantities of tropical juices. The Netherlands, while it is the largest importer, re-exports most of its imported quantities and is rather a small consumer. However, the country is home to some of the largest European traders, providing distinct opportunities and insights and an entry point for the whole of Europe.According to ‘Financial Food’ (based on combined Nielsen and Kantar data), the consumption of fruit juices in Spain has continued to decrease despite the impact of COVID-19. The total volume of fruit juices and nectars sold in 2020 was estimated at 734 million litres. Fruit juices accounted for 41% of consumption, while the remaining 59% were nectars (with a 25-99% juice content). Orange juice is the most popular flavour with a share of around 36%, followed by pineapple with 26%. Other tropical fruits account for around 15%. Citrus and tropical juices mainly consist of the liquid contained in citrus or tropical fruit. Tropical fruit is grown in tropical regions (the climatic zone surrounding the Equator), while citrus fruit more specifically belongs to the genus Citrus. Due to climatic conditions, tropical fruit cannot be produced in Europe, except in a few isolated islands that belong to European countries. Some citrus fruit is grown and processed into juices in Mediterranean Europe. Still, most citrus juices are imported because domestic production cannot satisfy European demand.