U.S. imports 97 percent of its papaya with 80 percent coming from Mexico

As of August 8, 2017, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) identified a total of 109 people who were infected in 16 States with two strains of Salmonella after consuming papaya. The CDC determined that the likely source of contamination is a farm in Mexico. U.S. papaya imports from Mexico more than doubled from 154 million pounds in 2000 to 452 million pounds in 2016. This dramatic rise is likely because of the diverse American diet that is driven by an increase in the immigrant population, especially from Latin America and Asia where papaya is more plentiful. Mexican production has accounted for 67 percent of total imports in 2007 to 82 percent of total imports in 2016. Currently, imports account for approximately 97 percent of domestic availability in the United States; meaning that Mexican production accounts for approximately 80 percent of all domestically available papaya. The Salmonella contaminations are not likely to have a significant impact on supply of U.S. imports since the incident appears to be isolated to one farm, but consumer demand has been shown to respond to food safety outbreaks. The data for this chart are from the ERS Fruit and Tree Nut Yearbook tables updated in August 2017.