Processed tomato export trends

World trade
The production of processed tomato has been predominantly concentrated in the EEC and North America. These accounted for almost 75 per cent of the total production in 1992-93. USA accounts for 42.2 percent and Italy producing about 16 per cent of the world production has processed tomato.
World trade in processed tomatoes are in the form of paste, ketchup/sauce, puree and canned tomato. Italy ranks as the largest exporter of processed tomatoes, making its presence felt on the world market for all the four processed tomato items. In the case of canned tomato, Spain is another important exporter. In case of tomato puree too, Italy enjoys close to a monopoly. On the tomato paste market, while this country is the biggest exporter, Greece comes a close second. The USA does not figure on the list in any of the major items, even though it is a substantially large producer of the same, indicating that this country consumes most of its production of processed tomato items.
The major importers are USA. This is a significant importer of the processed tomato items, although its imports are less than 1% of its own domestic production. Some other consistently large importers are the U.K., France and Germany. The United Kingdom alone imported 304.5 thousand tonnes of processed tomatoes. France imported as much as 175 thousand tonnes of processed tomatoes in the same period, which amounted to 67 per cent of its total domestic production in the year. As in the case of the USA, such a phenomenon reveals a huge domestic market. However, unlike the latter which has been declining over time, the French market has shown stagnation, except in the case of canned tomato which has shown some growth, although very nominally. Germany too, figures as a major and consistent importer, and the market for ketchup and sauce in particular are growing in this country.
India's production
India is not a dominant player in the world market, whether that be in the context of production, imports or export. India's share in world production is only 0.79 per cent. However, the Indian tomato processing industry prides itself on being the largest in Southeast Asia. In fact, the output of the Indian industry is more than twice that of Japan, and considerably greater that Thailand and Taiwan. Another encouraging trends has been that India's production level of processed tomato has risen by 50 per cent.
Domestic producers of this item state that the major institutional customers of tomato paste are restaurants. The manufacturers of ketchup/sauce account for about 80 per cent of the consumption. Tomato juice and puree have not yet established themselves firmly in the middle class food habit, but the demand for ketchup/sauce is slowly growing in this massive segment. So far, processed tomato products for direct consumption have not found favour among the masses due to traditional food habits.

Export competitiveness
Processed tomato is a major trade item in the world, but India does not figure anywhere among the top exporters of any of its many forms. However, India has been exporting processed tomato in the form of tomato paste and ketchup. India does possess moderate export competitiveness on the world market for tomato paste. The domestic market is expanding, and there is also world demand for this product. Tomato paste is another item in which India possesses export competitiveness.