California Lettuce Prices Surge and More Adults Eating Less Fruit
From the Ag Information Network, this is your Agribusiness Update.
**The cost to California’s lettuce growers complying with the state’s environmental, labor and food safety regulations has surged 63.7% the past seven years.
According to a Monterey County Farm Bureau study that’s raised production costs more than 12% at $1,600 per acre.
Since 2006, compliance costs have risen by 1,366%.
Despite this, lettuce growers saw just a 0.37% increase in market prices for their products from 2017 to 2024.
**A growing number of U.S. adults consume less than a quarter of the fruit recommended in Federal dietary guidelines.
USDA’s dietary survey data from 2005 to 2020, researchers found about 40% of all adults consumed below 25% of the fruit recommended since 2020, up from 37% in 2013-16 and 32% in 2009-12.
The share of all adults who consumed enough fruit stayed consistent at about 15%.
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**The January Rural Mainstreet Index fell below growth neutral for the 16th time in the past 17 months, and farm prices took a tumble for the eighth time in the past nine months.
But data from the International Trade Association says regional exports of ag goods and livestock for the first 11 months of 2024 rose 6.2% to $11.6 billion.
Mexico was the top destination for 2024 ag exports.
