Mexico easily is the biggest supplier of fresh produce to the USA, according to figures provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Mexico provided 69 percent of Ameican’s fresh vegetable import value and 37 percent of the USA’s fresh fruit import value in 2012.
Trucks account for virtually all of these Mexican imports as fresh fruits and vegetables are loaded at border warehouses stretching from Texas to California.
Last year USA imports of Mexican fresh fruit totaled $2.86 billion, with the import value increasing by an average of about 20 percent per year from 1999 to 2012. By comparison, the value of U.S. imports of Chilean fruit totaled $1.22 billion in 2012, up an average of 10 percent per year over the same period.
In 2012, Mexico accounted for $4.05 billion in USA fresh vegetable imports. Between 1999 and 2012, the average annual growth in the value of USA fresh vegetable imports from Mexico was 15 percent, compared with 14 percent yearly growth in in the value from Canada.
Peru accounted for only 5 percent of USA fresh vegetable import value last year,but the annual growth in the value of imports of fresh vegetables from Peru averaged 31 percent from 1999 to 2012.
Over the past 12 years, total USA vegetable import volume has increased at an average rate of 5.1 percent, almost double the 2.7 percent average annual growth in the volume of USA fruit imports.
The USDA report said that average annual price inflation for USA vegetable imports from 1999 to 2011 was 3.3 percent, while the average price inflation for fruit imports was 5 percent.