Most of America’s fruit is imported
It’s obvious to anyone who visits an American supermarket in winter — past displays brimming with Chilean grapes, Mexican berries and Vietnamese dragon fruit — that foreign farms supply much of our produce.
Imports have increased steadily for decades, but the extent of the change may be surprising: More than half of the fresh fruit and almost a third of the fresh vegetables Americans buy now come from other countries.
Although local, seasonal and farm-to-table are watchwords for many consumers, globalization has triumphed in the produce aisle. And despite the protectionist “America First” message coming from the Trump administration, the growth in imports appears likely to continue.
So this is an apt moment to examine how the shift happened, and what it portends — good or ill — for American consumers and farmers.
“I had no idea that more than half our fruit is imported, and it shocks me that this has happened so quickly,” said Michael Pollan, a professor of journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, whose best-selling books have analyzed the tensions between local and global food systems.
The surge in imports, mostly from Latin America and Canada, flows from many other changes during the last 40 years, starting with improvements in roads, containerized shipping and storage technology. Horticulturists developed varieties and growing practices adapted to warmer climates — enabling, say, blueberries and blackberries to be grown in central Mexico.
Growth in American incomes spurred greater demand for fresh produce yearround. Immigrants brought tastes for the foods of their homelands, and in some cases (like avocados and mangoes) these tastes have became mainstream. Foreign growers took advantage of lower labor costs. International trade agreements reduced tariffs and other obstacles to imports, while many American farmers, facing regulatory hurdles at home, have responded by shifting production abroad, mainly to Mexico.
One crucial part of the story is little known: During the past two decades, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has issued roughly 100 new rules allowing specific crops to be imported from certain countries — like peppers from Peru. Crops that previously would have not been approved because they might introduce invasive pests and diseases were allowed in through new “systems approaches” that manage those risks by combining methods like orchard inspections, sprays and bagging of fruits.
Many foreign crops have recently been approved for importation using these protocols, including Chinese apples and Colombian avocados.
As a result, the proportion of the imported fresh fruit eaten in the United States rose to 53.1 percent in 2016, from 23 percent in 1975, according to the Agriculture Department’s Economic Research Service. Fresh vegetable imports rose to 31.1 percent from 5.8 percent. (Still, the United States remains a net agricultural exporter, with grains, soybeans, meat and nuts accounting for most of the trade surplus.)
Greater availability has led to a huge increase in per-capita consumption of many crops, including mangoes (up 1,850 percent from 1975 to 2016), limes, avocados, grapes, asparagus, artichokes and squash. Yet consumption has fallen for other crops — like peaches, oranges, cabbages and celery — that are still primarily grown in America.
Imports vs. homegrown
For consumers, the chief advantages of the import boom are the increased availability and variety of fresh produce, particularly in winter, when imported berries, grapes and stone fruit now compete with citrus and stored apples.
“It’s easy to criticize food that comes from far away,” Pollan said. “But if the question is whether this is good for your health or not, in general it is.”
Many imports cost less than domestically grown equivalents, and competition from imports keeps prices down for domestic produce. Imported produce is also sometimes fresher than the domestic equivalent. In spring, newly harvested Gala apples from New Zealand may be crunchier than the same variety from U.S. orchards, which were picked the previous fall. And some imports are simply superb, like flavorful pink seedless muscat grapes from Chile, now in season.
But unlike imported furniture or washing machines, produce is perishable and may suffer from transport.
In many fruits, acidity drops over time, and off flavors develop; weeks-old cherries, for example, may still look fine but taste flat. Vegetables, too, can decline. Domestic asparagus, grown mostly in California, Michigan and Washington, tends to be plumper, juicier and more flavorful than the more fibrous and rubbery imports from Mexico and Peru.
Of some concern is a 2015 report from the Food and Drug Administration that found that 9.4 percent of imported fruit samples violated federal standards for pesticide residues, compared with 2.2 percent of domestic samples. (For vegetables, the figures were 9.7 percent for imported and 3.8 percent for domestic.) But that’s probably not enough to justify avoiding imported produce.
“‘Eat your veggies’ is good advice no matter what,” said Marion Nestle, a professor emerita of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University. “The benefits of plant-based diets are better established than the harms of pesticides.”
The harvest for farmers
For American farmers, too, imports have had mixed consequences. The increased international trade in produce has benefited many of them (including growers of Northwestern apples and California citrus) but harmed others (producers of Florida tomatoes and California asparagus).
Most growers’ organizations maintain that trade accords like the North American Free Trade Agreement have helped U.S. produce farmers on balance. “NAFTA overall has been positive, and we oppose U.S. withdrawal from the agreement,” said Ken Gilliland, director of international trade for Western Growers, which represents produce farmers in Arizona, California, Colorado and New Mexico. “Eliminating NAFTA and implementing tariffs would have a negative impact on our members’ ability to export.”
Most of the advantage from exports, however, has gone to large growers.
“Clearly the larger shippers have benefited more from the globalization of produce,” said David Runsten, policy director of the Community Alliance With Family Farmers, a California group that advocates for small farms. “Smaller organic produce growers in California are feeling the effects of increasing imports.”
The Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration is likely to worsen the shortage and high cost of labor, a serious threat for many U.S. farmers. “The United States needs immigration reform and a stable labor force if it wants to continue to grow most of its own produce,” Runsten said.