A new report from the US Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service shows that imported produce will make up an increasingly large proportion of fresh fruits and vegetables sold in the US in the coming decade.
The study predicts that imports will account for roughly half of total per capita fruit and nut use in the US by 2023, while imported vegetables will make up 25 per cent of per capita vegetable use. This compares with 2013 levels of 42 per cent for fruit and nuts and 19 per cent for vegetables, the report said.
“Use” refers to all fresh produce domestically produced and imported into the US as opposed to actual consumption which is lower as it takes into account shrink and other losses.
The USDA also predicted that the country’s trade deficit in horticultural crops and products will grown from US$12.8bn in fiscal 2013 to US$23.1bn in 2023, as import growth continues to outpace exports.
Imports of fresh vegetables will grown from US$6.5bn to US$11.3bn during the same period, while fresh fruit imports will rise from US$8.3bn to US$13.4bn. Vegetable exports, meanwhile will climb from US$2.3bn in 2013 to US$3.1bn by 2023. Fruit exports will increase to US$7.44bn in 2023 compared with US$5.01bn in 2013.
While imports are expanding faster than exports, the USDA predicts exports will continue to grow in significance for US producers. By 2023, 27 per cent of US fruits and nuts will be sold overseas, up from 23 per cent in 2013. Likewise, about 20 per cent of the country’s vegetable output will be sold in foreign markets by 2023, up from 16.7 per cent in 2013.
