Healthy soil and sustainable growing

["Harold and Sue Karber" <karber@pldi.net>]

What ever happened to common sense. This is madness to me....net importer of food...... total insanity.   5to 1 importer... this is just produce not counting meat.    Buy local should be our goal.   Buy USA next then export if surplus and low energy use means.  

 

 

 

Imports of fresh foreign produce outpace U.S. exports    http://www.freshplaza.com/news_detail.asp?id=8718

Imports of fresh foreign produce have drastically outpaced U.S. exports since the implementation of the North American Free Trade Agreement in 1994, according to a recent report from the USDA Economic Research Service.

In 1994, U.S. imports of fresh fruits and vegetables were higher than exports, but both hovered at or below $3 billion, as they had for several years prior. Since then, U.S. fresh produce exports have grown by about $1 billion, while imports have increased by roughly $5 billion, according to the report.

Aside from NAFTA and other international trade agreements, higher fruit and vegetable imports are the result of rising consumer incomes and major advances in storage, packing and transportation, the report found.

In the overall agricultural industry - including livestock and related products, food and feed grains, oilseeds, processed produce, fibers, and other goods - U.S. exports, at $68.7 billion, were nearly $5 billion greater than imports in 2006, according to the USDA ERS.

Greater demand

Despite the influx of imports, U.S. production of fresh produce has risen since the early 1990s: production of the major fresh vegetables, for example, increased in volume by 19 percent, while non-citrus fruit increased in volume by 16 percent.

U.S. produce consumption has helped drive this growth: the average consumer now eats about 13 more pounds of fresh fruit and 50 more pounds of fresh vegetables as in the mid-1980s. Produce supplies have stabilized as imported fruits and vegetables fill in "seasonal gaps" in U.S. production: crop importation often peaks in the winter and dips in the summer, the report found.

"For the most part, imports have grown to satisfy increasing consumption, rather than to replace domestic production," wrote Sophia Huang and Kuo Huang, the report's authors. "Thus, volume has increased while prices in general have remained stable, and consumers have gained access to significantly more produce without paying higher prices," they stated.

American's appetite for produce has been influenced by having more cash available for food, better shipping methods, and more emphasis being placed on eating healthy.

A "quest for new taste experiences" among consumers and a surge in ethnic populations has also boosted the nation's appetite for produce. Demand and availability of fresh fruits and vegetables is now year-round, according to the report.

North American trade increases

While countries in Africa, South America, and Australia are major fruit suppliers to the U.S., produce trade with Mexico and Canada has especially been affected by the elimination of trade barriers.

These two countries account for more than $4 billion in U.S. fruit and produce imports and both "target the United States almost exclusively as their export market for fresh produce," the authors state. There are marked differences in the U.S. fresh produce trade relationship with each countries, however.

Imports from Canada have grown dramatically since NAFTA, from about $100 million to $800 million annually, but they continue to be surpassed by U.S. exports to that country, which rose from about $600 million to $1.4 billion since 1994.

The situation is reversed with Mexico: U.S. fresh produce exports to that country have grown since NAFTA, but remain under $500 million, while U.S. imports shot up from about $1 billion to $3.5 billion.

Technological improvement

Of course, none of this would matter without new shipping techniques such as "controlled atmosphere" maritime storage that maintains food at ideal levels of oxygen, nitrogen, temperature and humidity, according to the report.

"Remarkable technological innovations in production, storage, packaging and transportation over the last two decades enabled fresh fruit and vegetables to be shipped to consumers globally in a timely manner and at an affordable cost," states the report.


Source: capitalpress.info

Publication date: 10/5/2007

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