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Vegetable sales soar by 82 percent amid declines in harvest area and farms

According to the recently released Census of Agriculture, 69,452 farms reported the harvest of vegetables (including melons and potatoes, excluding mushrooms and dry pulses) in 2022—a 6.5 percent decrease from the 2017 Census. Area harvested declined 1.4 percent to 4.3 million acres with only 39 percent of the total in crops destined for processing (canning, freezing, and dehydration). Despite the drop in total vegetable farms and processing farm acres, from 2017 to 2022 real (inflation-adjusted) sales of vegetables (including seeds and transplants) per operation increased by 82 percent from about $280,000 to over $500,000 (in 2012 dollars). Real sales per operation increased steadily since the 2002 Census.

Bar chart of millions of acres harvested from 2002 to 2022 and a line graph of per operation sales in thousands of dollars from 2002 to 2022

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Vegetable sales soar by 82 percent amid declines in harvest area and farms

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