Exports are a key market for U.S. fruit and tree nut producers

The United States exports a wide variety of fresh and processed fruit and tree nut products, with exports accounting for significant shares of U.S. supplies. For example, more than half of U.S. supplies of pistachios, almonds, and walnuts, and between 30 and 40 percent of U.S. fresh orange and grapefruit supplies, are exported. In terms of value, the leading fresh fruit exports are apples (exports averaging $772 million in 2008-10), grapes ($609 million), and oranges ($463 million). Major U.S. processed fruit exports include frozen and other orange juice ($383 million) and raisins ($304 million). The United States trails only China in production of tree nuts but is the world’s largest exporter, trading nearly a third of the world’s tree nuts. By value, almonds are the leading U.S. horticultural export commodity ($2.0 billion), with the United States accounting for nearly 75 percent of world almond exports in 2010. Other important tree nut exports include walnuts ($659 million) and pistachios ($572 million). In 2008-10, Hong Kong and China purchased 17 percent of U.S. tree nut exports, followed by Canada (5 percent) and Korea (3 percent). This chart appears in Fruit and Tree Nuts Outlook, FTS-354, December 18, 2012.

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