11/4/08 Fruit & Nut Production Down

Fruit & Nut Production Down. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. The United States is among the top producers and consumers of fruit and tree nuts in the world. Each year, fruit and tree nut production generates about 13 percent of U.S. farm cash receipts for all agricultural crops. But the crops this year have been on the short side as Mother Nature saw fit to not cooperate in the early part of the season. POLLACK: Total consumption was shown down because of the decline in the crops for citrus and non-citrus for the year. That is Susan Pollack with the USDA. Other than the category of canned fruits, total fruit consumption in the US for the 2006-2007 crop year was down two per cent from the prior season. The canned fruit numbers were slightly increased due to something we don't usually consider a fruit according to Pollack. POLLACK: I think part of the increase in canned fruit comes from increased olive consumption and increased olive consumption. Almost all olives are pretty much processed in some way and canned is one of the more popular ways in the United States and a lot of that gets used by the processing industry so that gets you for the food service industry. Pollack says increased exports of US tree fruit has led to a rise in consumption as measured in the 2008 Fruit and Tree Nut Yearbook. POLLACK: Tree nut consumption counts for very, very small part of the whole fruit and tree nut consumption. Total consumption in 2007 was 270.7 pounds for the year per person whereas tree nut production for the year really only accounted for I think about 3.3 pounds. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.