Posts Tagged “imported fresh apples”
Imported fresh produce arriving at U.S. ports continues to grow in popularity. While most of it arrives by boat, virtually all of it is delivered to final destinations by trucks across North America.
Exotic and tropical fruits grown outside the U.S., such as mangoes, papayas and pineapples have contributed to an increase in fruit imports and increased popularity. Imported fresh fruits have increased just about 10 percent in the decade prior to 2001-2003.
However, the volume of fresh imported apples actually fell slightly between 2001-2003 and 2011-2013 because the U.S. apple industry was increasing volume and offering more apple varieties, particularly during the late season to compete against apple imports from the Southern Hemisphere.
The proportion of fresh pears supplied from imports also has fallen slightly in the last decade, but at 18 percent it is still more than twice that of fresh apples.
Foreign exporters of fresh apples, pears and sweet cherries have been improving the quality of their products to effectively compete against American grown produce.
However, U.S. producers haven’t been sitting on their laurels, making their own improvements. U.S. exporters of fresh apples have increased the volume of exports by 67 percent between 2001-2003 and 2011-2013 and the average price by 87 percent.
Pear exporters have increased volume by 16 percent and average prices by over 83 percent.
Sweet cherries differ from apples and pears in that virtually all imports come from the Southern Hemisphere (mainly Chile) in the winter months and do not overlap with the domestic shipping season. In that case, the U.S. has been able to expand both its exports and imports dramatically — exports by almost 100 percent and imports by over 70 percent.
Analysis suggests that U.S. fresh apples, pears and sweet cherries face little direct threat from foreign suppliers of their own products in the U.S. market.
The rising popularity of exotic and tropical fruits grown outside the U.S., such as mangoes, papayas and pineapples has contributed to an increase in fruit imports. On average, one-third of all fresh fruit consumed in the United States from 2011-2013 was imported. This represented an increase of over 10 percent in market share compared with a decade earlier, 2001-2003.
The share of fresh apples imported actually fell slightly between 2001-2003 and 2011-2013 as the U.S. apple industry has continued to expand the volume and diversity of apple varieties available in the late season to compete against apple imports from the Southern Hemisphere.
Port of Long Beach and Southern California produce – grossing about $3600 to Chicago.