Red cabbage is native to southern Europe. At present, it is grown all over Europe.

In Spain, this vegetable does not bear a significant economic and commercial interest because the productions are usually limited to the demand of the domestic market as a popular vegetable. Its culture spreads along the Mediterranean coast, from Barcelona to Murcia, being the central regions, Madrid and Toledo, the main producers, perhaps because of the special appreciation of the Madrilenian consumers towards this vegetable.

This vegetable is generally grown in most of the European countries, mainly France and Italy, as well as Africa and mainly in Minor Asia.

There is no data for such a species in the ‘Anuarios de Estadística Agraria del Ministerio de Agricultura’, since they include the two species of cabbage: Brassica oleracea var. capitata (varieties of cabbages of even leaves, headed cabbage, red cabbage, white cabbage) and Brasica oleracea var.bullata (cabbage of curly leaves, Savoy cabbage).

These two species amount to 343,600 t in the Spanish production, in which numerous Spanish provinces participate. However, most of the production comes from Pontevedra and Valencia. 67% of this yield is intended for marketing in fresh in the domestic market. Exports only represent 1% of the total production (MAPA 1991). The output is between 25 and 50 tons per hectare.

Since there are no specific data available on this species (Red cabbage) the global data of cabbages in the world are shown below. In 1998, the world-wide production of cabbages of all type totalled 48,241 thousand tons. The distribution of the world-wide production by continents was divided in the following way:

Continent	Thousand tons
Africa	905
Asia	31,704
Europe	12,254
North America	2,722
Oceania	99
South America	557
Total	48,241

Source: FAO Production Yearbook (1998)

Asia the main producer of cabbages in the world, followed by the European continent. The main producing countries are:

Country	Thousand tons
China	16,916
India	4,200
Russia	3,120
Korea	2,895
Japan	2,700
The USA	2,223
Poland	2,020
Indonesia	1,156
The Ukraine	980
Uzbekistan	865

Source: FAO Production Yearbook (1998)

The main world-wide producer is China with 16,916 thousand tons, followed by India and Russia.