Lettuce is the vegetable the Dutch spend most of their money on, an agriculture report shows. It is closely followed by tomatoes.

In 2010, vegetable sales grew by eight percent to 235 million euros. It’s not so much that we’re eating more veggies—we’re just spending more money on them. In fact, we’re getting and less and less of the stuff.

In 2010, the Dutch devoured 83 million kilos of lettuce, down from 86 million kilos in 2009 and 90 million kilos in 2008. Prices, by contrast, soared to record highs in 2010.

Instead of buying a whole head of lettuce, consumers are increasingly turning complete salad meals and salad dishes. A third of the sales consist of mixed salad greens.

Sales continued to grow during the first 16 weeks of this year but dipped due to the EHEC bacteria scare.

Lettuce comes in a range of varieties but 85 percent of the lettuce grown in the Netherlands is iceberg lettuce. Half of the iceberg lettuce is for domestic consumption; the other half is exported.

Rucola is rapidly gaining ground and its market share is expanding accordingly.

(cl)

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