More than half of the fresh fruit and almost a third of the fresh vegetables Americans buy now come from other countries. That’s a lot. But there’s more: According to the USDA, food imports will likely continue to increase, with imports of fresh fruits and vegetables rising 45 percent from 2016 to 2027. In other words, 75 percent of our fruit and almost half of our vegetables will likely be imported by then.
What is driving rising imports?
US consumers are wealthier and more ethnically diverse than in years past when imports such as bananas and coffee took up only a small part of their shopping baskets.
But things have changed, and US consumers have developed an appetite for foods from other countries, some of them tropical countries that can grow some of the foods that meet shoppers’ acquired new tastes.
Source: foodsafetynews.com
