Agronometrics In Charts: Review of Mexican strawberries in U.S. market

In this week’s installment, we will take a look at strawberries exports from Mexico to the U.S. market in the past and today.

Mexico is the largest supplier of strawberries to the U.S. market, accounting for more than 10 percent of all imported strawberries so far this year.

In 2000, Mexico exported 74 million kilograms of strawberries to the U.S., with this figure rising to 320 million kg in 2019. This shows a 430 percent increase in the last 20 years.

The U.S. market has been able to absorb this supply from Mexico, which is shown when talking about prices in a graph below.

Historical volumes of Mexican strawberries in the U.S. market (kg)

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.
(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

Regarding this season, which began in September, Mexico has exported the highest volumes in comparison to the last six seasons year-on-year

Volumes (in KG) of Mexican strawberries in the U.S. market

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.
(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

With respect to previous prices of Mexican strawberries in the U.S. market, we can say that these prices have remained fairly constant with a slight upward trend over the last 20 years.

This shows that the U.S. market has been able to absorb the large volumes of fruit coming from Mexico, always closely related to the volumes from Florida and southern California, Mexico’s main competitors.

The average price per kilogram of strawberries in 2019 was $4.39 per kg, a 12 percent increase from 2019, where the average price was $3.93 per kg.

It is interesting to add that the prices of Mexican strawberries are generally above the average prices in the U.S. market.

Price (USD/KG) of Mexican strawberries in the U.S. market

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.
(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

Strawberries are a staple in the North American diet, and it seems that the prices are mainly regulated by volume variations, instead of by consumption

This fruit is also very sensitive to weather problems and quite immune to the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Written by: Cristian Crespo F.
Original published in FreshFruitPortal.com on December 15, 2020 (Link)

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