The United States, Canada and Germany won the teeth among the top importing countries of fresh strawberries in the world in 2020.
Ahead of all, imports to the United States were $ 849 million, followed by those of Canada (354 million) and Germany (346 million).
In particular, according to the Department of Agriculture (USDA), US imports of strawberries increased more than 127% between 2008-10 and 2018-20.
More than 99% of fresh strawberry imports are produced in Mexico.
In the United States, most import shipments arrive between November and March, with some smaller shipments in other months.
The increase in shipments of Mexican strawberries may be due to increased plantings and the use of “tunnel production” to better control the growing environment.
Fresh strawberries
As imports grew much faster than domestic production, the share of imports in availability increased rapidly: from 8% of available strawberries in 2008–10 to almost 20% in 2018–20.
Annual imports hit a 2020 record of more than 430 million pounds.
Similarly, imports overlap with domestic supplies in the winter and early spring months, competing directly with Florida and Southern California, where production appears to have experienced the greatest impact from imports.
Meanwhile, US strawberry production grew 16% between 2008-10 and 2018-20, to about 2 billion pounds.
Strawberries are grown primarily in California (about 90%) and Florida (about 8 percent).
While some California growers ship strawberries every month, most ship April through October, Florida growers supply fresh strawberries primarily from December through May.
Producers in the southern region were affected by more imports from Mexico during their season and operate in an area with high-cost land. Production in that area declined, with some moving to other parts of California with lower land prices or to Mexico.
Other leading importers of fresh strawberries in the world were, according to the WTO: United Kingdom (238 million dollars), France (164 million), Netherlands (121 million), Belgium (105 million), Italy (82 million) , Russia (71 million) and Hong Kong (65 million).
