It is thought that shallots come from tropical Asia. It was highly appreciated by the Greeks and the Romans, that considered it aphrodisiac. It is not a widely spread culture, and it is mainly produced in Asia and North America. The main producing countries are Mexico, Republic of Korea, Japan and China. The production and export data gathered by the FAO refer to shallots and fresh onions.

The world production is as follows:

Continent	Thousand tons	%
Africa	389	9
Asia	1,955	48
Europe	199	5
North America	1,211	29
Oceania	240	6
South America	115	3
Total	4,109	100

Source: FAO Production Yearbook, 2000

The 10 main producing countries are the following:

Country	Thousand tons
Mexico	1,200
Republic of Korea	606
Japan	532
China	351
New Zealand	240
Turkey	230
Nigeria	200
Tunisia	122
Ecuador	98
Pop Dem. Rep. Korea	85

Source: FAO Production Yearbook, 1998

The main producing country is Mexico, that is also the main exporter. It is followed by New Zealand, that exports almost the whole of its production. The rest are France, Indonesia and the Netherlands. The following table shows the 10 main exporting countries:

Country	Tons
Mexico	259,944
New Zealand	205,888
France	16,834
Indonesia	8,603
The Netherlands	7,803
Brazil	2,504
Burkina Faso	1,500
Belgium-Luxembourg	1,036
Morocco	635
Trinidad and Tobago	502

Source: FAO Trade Yearbook, 1999