U.S. Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Supply and Trade
Luis A. Ribera, C-FARE Board Member and Professor and Extension Economist at the Texas A&M University System
In recent years, fresh fruit and vegetable production in the United States has been on the decline; U.S. production has decreased by 10 and 23.1 percent respectively since 2000. With declining domestic production, imports of fresh fruits and vegetables have grown substantially with some products only being available in the United States due to imports. Imports of fresh fruits have increased from 36.6 percent in 2000 to 54.8 percent in 2022 (Figure 1), with 2020 marking the first time that a larger share of the total supply of fresh fruit in the United States was imported than grown domestically. (Note in Figure 1 that bananas comprise such a large part of fruit imports that the USDA uses the category ‘Fruits excluding bananas.’) Vegetable imports in 2022 were 29.3 percent of the total supply, up from 9.5% in 2000. The value of imported fresh fruits and vegetables for 2022 was $18.23 billion. After excluding exports, the total volume of fresh fruits and vegetables available in the United States was 94.65 billion pounds, or 283.63 pounds per capita.
The United States has gone from being a net exporter of fresh produce in 1980 with 3.25 billion pounds to a net importer starting in 1998 with 1.88 billion pounds (Figure 2). In 2022, the U.S.’s trade deficit for fresh produce (fruits and vegetables excluding bananas) was 24.4 billion pounds, and has exceeded 10 billion pounds since 2013. The United States was a net exporter of fresh fruits (excluding bananas), from 1980 to 2002; since then the United States net imports have grown considerably. During 1980 the United States trade surplus of fresh fruits (excluding bananas) totaled 3.11 billion pounds of exports. In 2022, the trade deficit of fresh fruits (excluding bananas) totaled 10.4 billion pounds. As for fresh vegetables, the United States has not had exports exceed imports since 1992. During 2022, imports of fresh vegetables were 13.9 billion pounds higher than exports and continue to grow.
