About 1 in 3 fresh vegetables is imported
USDA estimates imports made up 35% of the fresh vegetables available to Americans in 2025.
Data: 2025 · Source: USDA ERS, Vegetables and Pulses Outlook: April 2026 (VGS-378)
The Supply Line
Who grows the food on your table? Straight numbers from USDA, Texas A&M and the Texas Legislature. No spin — read the sources yourself.
Import share more than doubled since 2000
Imports were 13.3% of U.S. fresh-market vegetable supply in 2000 and 35.2% in 2023, more than two and a half times as much.
Data: 2000-2023 · Source: USDA ERS, Vegetables and Pulses Outlook: December 2024 (VGS-374)
Most fresh fruit comes from abroad
Imports supplied 59% of U.S. fresh fruit in 2023, up from 50% in 2007. Over the same years, the fresh vegetable share went from 20% to 35% (excluding potatoes, sweet potatoes and mushrooms).
Data: 2007-2023 · Source: USDA ERS Chart of Note: U.S. fresh fruit and vegetable supplies continue to rely on imports (Jan. 2025)
Ten crops jumped more than 20 points
From 2007 to 2023, the import share rose more than 20 percentage points for asparagus, avocados, bell peppers, blueberries, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, raspberries, snap beans and tomatoes.
Data: 2007-2023 · Source: USDA ERS Chart of Note: U.S. fresh fruit and vegetable supplies continue to rely on imports (Jan. 2025)
Mexico supplies about three-quarters of imported vegetables
Mexico supplied about 77% of U.S. fresh vegetable imports and Canada about 13%, averaged over 2023-2025. Measured by dollar value, Mexico's share was 69% in 2023.
Data: 2023-2025 · Source: USDA ERS, Vegetables and Pulses Outlook: April 2026 (VGS-378)
Imports now compete in the U.S. summer season
Summer was the main U.S. growing window, but summer (July-September) imports of Mexican bell peppers rose 742% between 2008-10 and 2018-20, from 15 million to 127 million pounds. USDA calls this 'market window creep': imports arrive earlier and keep shipping later than the traditional U.S. seasons.
Data: 2008-2020 · Source: USDA ERS Amber Waves: U.S. Fresh Vegetable Imports From Mexico and Canada Continue To Surge (Nov. 2021)
Summer cucumber imports more than doubled
Summer cucumber imports from Mexico rose 156%, to 223 million pounds, between 2008-10 and 2018-20. Summer squash imports from Mexico rose 105% over the same period.
Data: 2008-2020 · Source: USDA ERS Amber Waves: U.S. Fresh Vegetable Imports From Mexico and Canada Continue To Surge (Nov. 2021)
Cucumbers flipped from U.S.-grown to imported
U.S. cucumber growers out-produced imports every year until 2005. Imports reached about 90% of the market by 2020, and USDA put the share at 91% in 2025.
Data: 2005-2025 · Source: USDA ERS Chart of Note: Fresh cucumber imports capture nearly 90 percent of U.S. market (June 2021)
Texas lost 3.7 million acres of working land
Texas converted nearly 3.7 million acres of farm, ranch and forest land to non-agricultural uses between 1997 and 2022. More than 1.8 million of those acres were lost from 2017 to 2022 alone.
Data: 1997-2022 · Source: Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute, Status Update and Trends of Texas Working Lands (Texas Land Trends, 2025)
Texas farmland value up 505% since 1997
Texas working land averaged $3,021 an acre in appraised market value in 2022. That was up 55% from 2017 and 505% from $499 an acre in 1997, as the state grew from 19 million to over 30 million people.
Data: 1997-2022 · Source: Texas A&M Natural Resources Institute, Status Update and Trends of Texas Working Lands (Texas Land Trends, 2025)
2.2 million more Texas acres projected for development by 2040
American Farmland Trust's 2022 Farms Under Threat research projects that 2.2 million acres of Texas farm and ranchland will be converted to development by 2040, more than any other state is projected to lose.
Data: 2016-2040 projection · Source: American Farmland Trust, Texas
Texas has the most foreign-held farmland
As of Dec. 31, 2024, foreign investors held interests in nearly 5.9 million acres (5,886,860) of Texas agricultural land, more than any other state. That was up about 231,000 acres from 2023, the largest increase of any state. The figure includes long-term leases, such as wind-energy leases.
Data: 2024 · Source: USDA FSA, Foreign Holdings of U.S. Agricultural Land Through December 31, 2024 (AFIDA)
46.3 million U.S. farm acres have foreign interests
Foreign persons held interests in 46.3 million acres of U.S. agricultural land at the end of 2024, about 3.6% of privately held farmland. Canadian investors held the most, and 47% of the acreage was forest.
Data: 2024 · Source: USDA FSA, Foreign Holdings of U.S. Agricultural Land Through December 31, 2024 (AFIDA)
Half of Chinese-held U.S. farmland is in Texas
Chinese investors reported 247,659 acres of U.S. agricultural land at the end of 2024, and 123,708 of those acres were in Texas, the most of any state. USDA says the Texas holdings are mostly long-term leases tied to wind-energy projects.
Data: 2024 · Source: USDA FSA, Foreign Holdings of U.S. Agricultural Land Through December 31, 2024 (AFIDA)
Texas limits land buys tied to designated countries
Senate Bill 17, effective Sept. 1, 2025, bars governments, companies and certain individuals tied to designated countries (such as China, Iran, North Korea and Russia) from buying or acquiring Texas real property. That includes farmland and leases of a year or longer. U.S. citizens, permanent residents and lawfully present people buying a home to live in are exempt, and violations can be a state jail felony.
Data: 2025 · Source: Texas Legislature, 89(R) SB 17, enrolled bill text
Texas lost 7% of its farms in five years
The 2022 Census of Agriculture counted 230,662 farms in Texas, down 7% from 2017. Average farm size rose 6%, to 544 acres.
Data: 2022 · Source: USDA NASS, 2022 Census of Agriculture, Texas State Profile
The average Texas producer is nearly 60
The average age of Texas agricultural producers was 59.9 in 2022, up from 59.2 in 2017. That year 166,930 Texas producers were 65 or older, compared with 24,900 under 35.
Data: 2022 · Source: USDA NASS, 2022 Census of Agriculture, Texas Table 52: Selected Producer Characteristics
U.S. down 142,000 farms since 2017
The U.S. had 1,900,487 farms in 2022, down 6.9% from 2,042,220 in 2017. The average producer's age rose to 58.1.
Data: 2022 · Source: USDA NASS, 2022 Census of Agriculture highlights (Ag Outlook Forum 2024 presentation)
Two companies sell over half of key crop seed
USDA found that two companies, Corteva and Bayer, accounted for more than half of U.S. retail seed sales of corn, soybeans and cotton in 2018-20. Four firms control most crop seed and farm chemical sales.
Data: 2018-2020 · Source: USDA ERS Chart of Note: Two companies accounted for more than half of corn, soybean, and cotton seed sales in 2018-20 (Oct. 2023)
A third of U.S. farmland may change hands in 20 years
American Farmland Trust estimates that about 297 million acres, roughly a third of U.S. farmland, could change hands over the next 20 years as older owners retire. The estimate is based on USDA's 2014 land ownership survey (TOTAL) and the 2017 Census of Agriculture.
Data: 2014 survey, 20-year outlook · Source: American Farmland Trust / Farmland Information Center, Talking Points (2023)
How much is imported, crop by crop
Share of U.S. fresh supply that comes from other countries. Every crop on this list grows in a Texas backyard.