Information about consumer purchase habits and behaviour is often reported to
marketers as quantitative data. The data must be interpreted to be useful.
The following
table was drawn from the Statistics Canada Web site (www.statscan.ca). It details the information
collected by StatsCan on the consumption of fruit and vegetables by Canadians from 1990 through
2001. It must be noted that this data is actually based on food available for consumption and
not quantities of food purchased or consumed since StatsCan cannot take losses such as waste and/or
spoilage in stores, households, private institutions, or restaurants into consideration in its
calculations.
| | 1990 | 1992 | 1995 | 1998 | 2001 |
Kilograms |
| Total fruit* | 110.7 | 115.9 | 124.2 | 123.2 | 125.0 |
| Fresh fruit | 61.3 | 62.2 | 64.5 | 65.2 | 63.4 |
| Frozen fruit | 1.6 | 1.6 | 1.8 | 1.7 | 1.9 |
| Dried fruit | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 1.5 |
Litres |
| Fruit juice | 19.8 | 22.3 | 26.4 | 25.1 | 25.9 |
Kilograms
|
| Total vegetables* | 169.9 | 173.1 | 184.4 | 186.4 | 183.4 |
| Fresh vegetables | 129.7 | 134.3 | 145.2 | 145.5 | 143.9 |
| Canned vegetables | 12.7 | 12.9 | 12.8 | 13.4 | 12.6 |
| Frozen vegetables | 4.7 | 4.4 | 5.5 | 5.5 | 5.6 |
Litres |
| Vegetable juice | 2.1 | 1.8 | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 |
| | | | | |
Source: Statistics Canada, CANSIM II, table
002-0019 and catalog nos. 32-229-XIB and 32-320-XIB
* in fresh equivalent weight
Answer the
following questions based on the data in the above chart