The EU Member States imported 423 000 tonnes of spices from non-EU countries in 2018.
Ginger accounted for the largest share of these imports (128 000 tonnes), closely followed by paprika and allspice (96 000 tonnes) and pepper (71 000 tonnes). The main country of origin of ginger, paprika and allspice imports was China (99 000 tonnes and 64 000 tonnes respectively), while pepper was imported mainly from Vietnam (30 000 tonnes) and Brazil (23 000 tonnes).
Imports of ginger, paprika and pepper were higher than imports of turmeric (19 000 tonnes), most of which came from India (17 000 tonnes). The next biggest imported spices were cinnamon (18 000 tonnes), of which half came from Indonesia (9 000 tonnes), anise (16 000 tonnes) of which Egypt (4 000 tonnes) was the main supplier, coriander seeds (16 000 tonnes) of which the majority was from Russia (7 000 tonnes), and cumin seeds (14 000 tonnes), which came largely from India (8 000 tonnes).
The source dataset is accessible here.
Compared with 2012, the weight of extra-EU imports of spices increased 43%. Extra-EU imports of turmeric and ginger doubled, recording the largest increase among the most commonly traded spices. Although less commonly traded, extra-EU imports of saffron (518 tonnes) rose more than fivefold compared with 2012 (85 tonnes).
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