California shipped 49 percent of the leading vegetable and melon crops in 2012. Florida, Arizona, Georgia and Washington were the next leading states in produce shipments.
Shipments of the 24 leading U.S. vegetable and melon crops increased one percent last year with about 438 million cwt. were transported off of 1.68 million acres, also up one percent from 2011, according to the USDA.
The highest volume crops in 2012 were onions, head lettuce and watermelons, when combined, made up 36 percent of the total shipments.
Onion volume declined from 74.1 million cwt. in 2011 to 72.3 million cwt. in 2012, head lettuce was 45.6 million cwt., down from 49.7 million cwt., and watermelon rose from 37.2 million to 39 million cwt.