U.S. fresh fruit and vegetable supplies continue to rely on imports

Imports play an increasingly important role in ensuring that fresh fruit and vegetables are available year-round in the United States. Since the 2008 completion of the transition to tariff- and quota-free trade among Mexico, Canada, and the United States under the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), U.S. fresh fruit and vegetable imports have increased with few interruptions. From 2007 to 2023, the percent of U.S. fresh fruit and vegetable availability supplied by imports grew from 50 percent to 59 percent for fresh fruit and from 20 percent to 35 percent for fresh vegetables (excluding potatoes, sweet potatoes, and mushrooms). The import share increased by more than 20 percentage points during this period for 10 crops: asparagus, avocados, bell peppers, blueberries, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, raspberries, snap beans, and tomatoes. A year-to-year decline in blueberry and orange imports contributed to a decline in imports’ share of fresh fruit availability from 2022 to 2023. The United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), implemented on July 1, 2020, continues NAFTA’s market access provisions for fruit and vegetables. In 2023, Mexico and Canada supplied 51 percent and 2 percent, respectively, of U.S. fresh fruit imports, and 69 percent and 20 percent, respectively, of U.S. fresh vegetable imports in terms of value. This chart is drawn using data from the USDA, Economic Research Service (ERS) data products Fruit and Tree Nuts Data and Vegetables and Pulses Data. For more information, see the ERS report Changes in U.S. Agricultural Imports from Latin America and the Caribbean, published in July 2023, and the Amber Waves article U.S. Fresh Vegetable Imports From Mexico and Canada Continue To Surge, published in November 2021.