The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced that Russia became the world’s number one importer of apples and pears in the 2010 marketing year, a trend that is likely to continue throughout 2011, as the country trends towards healthy eating.

This year, the USDA estimates the fruit hungry nation could import as much as 1.11 million metric tons and 412,000 tons of apples and pears respectively.

Despite the magnitude of the country, Russia still depends heavily on imports because it only produces one-third of the fruit it consumes.

“Russians are eating more fruit and diversifying the types of fruit they consume due to increasing disposable incomes and a trend toward eating more healthy diets,” the U.S. Department of Agriculture said in its Moscow attaché.

Still, the amount of fruit Russians consume remains much lower than their counterparts in the U.S., Europe, Japan and China. According to the USDA, the typical Russian person consumes only 71 kg of fruit per capita/year while an American would eat 122.5kg per capita/year. But with Russians already consuming 10% more fruit last year, growth rates are certainly alarming.

Fruit consumption patterns in Russia vary depending on the part of the country. In smaller cities or rural areas, people tend to eat local produce while city dwellers in Moscow or St. Petersburg eat higher quantities of imported fruit.

The Wall Street Journal