In April, when the corona crisis really took hold of the United States, imports of fresh fruits and vegetables fell sharply (15%) compared to the same month in previous years. In the first three months, the import was still of the same magnitude as in previous years. In April, 1.69 million tons of fresh fruits and vegetables were imported into the States. In April 2019 that was still 1.97 million tons. A difference of 286,000 tons or 15%.
Mexico is by far the leading supplier of fresh fruit and vegetables to its neighbour the United States with a share of half. Imports from Mexico in April this year were no less than 18% smaller than in April last year. Guatemala and Costa Rica are numbers 2 and 3. Imports from these countries were in April respectively 14 and 15% smaller than in April 2019. Honduras did reasonably well with -5%, but Chile was the biggest loser with a minus of 36%.
Over the first four months of 2020, imports from Chile were 10% smaller than in January to April 2019. Total imports during that period were only 3% smaller. Mexico performed slightly worse than average (-5%).
The Netherlands is a modest supplier to the United States. Last year, imports from the Netherlands amounted to approximately 25,000 tonnes.
Bananas stable but much less tomatoes and watermelons
From a product perspective, the import of the main product, bananas, shows a very stable picture. In April, US banana imports were the same as in 2019. A plus of 3% was achieved in four months.
In April, imports of tomatoes and watermelons in particular fell sharply (a quarter). With peppers and cucumber, it was still less than 9%. Also striking are the big minuses in April for pineapple, melons, avocados, grapes and mangoes.
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For more information:
Jan Kees Boon
Fruit and Vegetable Facts
+31 654 687 684
[email protected]
www.fruitandvegetablefacts.com