The broad bean is a very old and easy to cultivate vegetable. Its origin could be focused in the old world. Thousands of years ago it was already harvested in Afghanistan, Western Asia and the surroundings of the Himalayas. During the Middle Ages, in Spain, it was the most consumed vegetable. In 1981 it became the leguminous with greater production in Spain, taking into account that broad bean production includes dry and tender beans.
In Spain, the provinces of Granada, Córdoba and Sevilla are those with larger production of broad bean. It is also cultivated, but in smaller quantities, in Islas Baleares, Cataluña, Navarra, Huelva, Badajoz, Alicante and Valencia. The fresh broad bean production in 2000 reached, all over the world, 883,376,000 tons. The world-wide production for each continent was:
World-wide production of green beans (2000) | |
---|
Continent | Tons |
Africa | 174,290 |
Asia | 300,379 |
Europe | 187,047 |
North America | 53,300 |
Oceania | 1,000 |
South America | 167,360 |
Total | 883,376 |
Source: (
http://www.fao.org ) - Data from 1999-
When analysing the production by countries, the first world-wide producer is Morocco, followed by China, Peru, Spain, Bolivia, Italy, Mexico, Turkey, Syria and Iraq. The production of each countries is detailed in the following table.
Country | Tons |
---|
Morocco | 120,000 |
China | 102,501 |
Peru | 70,000 |
Spain | 61,800 |
Bolivia | 60,000 |
Italy | 56,636 |
Mexico | 50,000 |
Turkey | 47,000 |
Arab Republic of Syria | 42,000 |
Iraq | 40,000 |
Total of the 10 larger producers | 631,664 |
Source: (
http://www.fao.org ) - Data from 1999-
The countries with larger export, as well as the value of such export, are detailed below.
Country | Production of fresh exported beans (t) | Value of the exports (1000$) |
---|
China | 15,934 | 7,793 |
Mexico | 9,757 | 5,266 |
The Netherlands | 5,202 | 2,813 |
Spain | 3,138 | 3,917 |
Guatemala | 2,778 | 848 |
Italy | 2,664 | 2,950 |
Syria | 2,145 | 2,155 |
Honduras | 1,626 | 653 |
France | 1,459 | 637 |
Ghana | 689 | 496 |
Source: (
http://www.fao.org ) - Data from 1999-