Browse Data and Analysis

On May 10, 2024, the Moroccan market opened for U.S. seed potatoes. The United States and Morocco agreed to the final requirements for import during the Plant Health Bilateral Meetings between the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) and Morocco’s sanitary authority (ONSSA) from May 6-10, 2024.

U.S. agricultural exports are a critical source of farm income. The USDA Economic Research Service estimates that on average 23 percent of the output of nonmanufactured agricultural products were exported between 2013 and 2022.

New Zealand’s apple planted area in the 2023/2024 market year (MY) is forecast to be 9,200 hectares (ha), a substantial drop from 11,000 ha at the start of the 2022/2023 MY. This is due to the impacts of Cyclone Gabrielle, which brought large-scale floodwaters, silt, debris, wind, and surface flooding to the primary apple growing regions of Hawkes Bay and Gisborne.

The cold and wet winter of 2023 provided favorable conditions for deciduous fruit and aided in improved production volumes. Production is expected to grow and improve in quality from MY 2022/23 when fruit was affected by hail damage.

Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) has approved a Queensland University of Technology (QUT) application to permit food derived from a banana line genetically engineered (GE) for resistance to Panama disease.

Vietnam offers abundant opportunities for exporting consumer-oriented products, despite the challenges of recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic and dealing with high inflation. The Vietnamese economy is poised for significant expansion in the coming decades. With a burgeoning population and a growing middle class, Vietnamese consumers are becoming more discerning about the origin and composition of their food.

In marketing year (MY) 2023/24, higher than normal temperatures early in the winter and a slow accumulation of chilling hours caused a delay in the harvest, and subsequently a delay in export shipment, of most deciduous fruit.

Japan's fresh vegetable market is estimated at approximately 14 million metric tons of which around 5 percent comes from imports. In 2023, the United States was the fourth largest supplier of fresh vegetables to Japan at $52 million and the second largest by volume at 46,309 metric tons.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency updated its labeling requirements for fresh grapes and the use of sulfur dioxide gas on fresh grapes during storage and transport – a result of the reclassification of sulfur dioxide when used under different scenarios.

Mexico’s 2024 avocado production is forecast at 2.77 million metric tons (MMT), a five percent increase over 2023 on strong export demand. Production in 2023 reached 2.65 MMT, up four percent compared to the previous year.

On February 15, 2024, the Minimum Access Volume (MAV) Management Committee issued an Administrative Circular (AC) that increased the annual MAV or Tariff Rate Quota for chipping potatoes from 30,000 to 60,000 metric tons (MT).

Attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen on commercial vessels have resulted in many shipping companies rerouting away from two of the world's busiest shipping routes — the Red Sea and Suez Canal.