The US Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service has raised its forecast for agricultural imports, predicting they will total US$85.5bn in fiscal 2011, up 8.2 per cent from US$79bn in 2010.
Fresh fruit and vegetables are expected to account for US$13.3bn, up from $12bn last year.
All fruit and vegetables, including processed imports, are worth an estimated $22.1bn in 2011.
Agricultural exports are also set to exceed all previous records, reaching US$126.5bn.
Fresh fruit and vegetable exports are estimated at US$6.2bn, a figure unchanged from the previous forecast last August.
Expectations about processed fruit and vegetable exports have been lowered by US$300m to US$5.9bn because of slowing demand from Canada and Japan.
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