Import Of Fruit & Vegetables Up In 2020

Many in the ag community have expressed an elevated interest in tracking the import of fruits and vegetables. USDA economist, Bart Kenner, took a look at the first 11 months of 2020.

"Fresh and frozen fruit imports from Mexico and Chile are down 1% and 4% respectively, but up 16% from Peru. And so those are 1, 2, and 3 Mexico, Chile, and Peru for our fresh and frozen fruits imports.]"

And imports from all sources during that time were up about 1% in value and about 2% in volume.

"Imports of fresh fruits and vegetables up 12% total," he noted.

That's 12% total value. When it comes to value, Mexico exported 13% more to the U.S. during that same 11 month period in 2019, Canada 11% more, the EU 28% more. When it comes to tonnage in vegetables, the increase is roughly 4%.

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