During the first quarter of 2022, U.S. bell pepper imports from Mexico dropped 12.6% from the previous year, according to data from the Economic Research Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA-ERS).

Mexico is the main bell pepper supplier for the United States, a position it has consolidated over the last few years as the import of Mexican bell peppers to the U.S. market has seen a steady increase.

In 2017, the United States imported 495,792 tons from Mexico, which represented 614 million dollars, increasing this figure year by year to reach 667,212 tons in 2021, with a value of 1.16 billion dollars.

U.S. bell pepper imports from Mexico (2017-2021)

Source: USDA-ERS/ProducePay 2022

However, during the first quarter of 2022, the United States imported 266,365 tons of bell peppers from Mexico, a 3.1% decrease compared to the 274,537 tons imported during the same period in 2021.

In terms of value, the import value for the first quarter of 2022 was 412.8 million dollars, representing a 12.6% decrease compared to the 472.1 million dollars from the same period in 2021.

Other important bell pepper suppliers for the United States during this first quarter of the year were Canada (11.8 million dollars), Honduras (5.2 million) and Dominican Republic (2.8 million), imports that showed a variation from the 2021’s first quarter of +20.4%, +47.0% and -34.1%, respectively.

It is worth mentioning that most of the bell pepper imports by the United States are made precisely during the first three months of the year, so having started the year with low volumes could mean the total volume of bell pepper from Mexico to be lower in 2022 than in 2021.

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Fuente:

USDA-ERS. Vegetables and Pulses Data / Data by commodity – Peppers (Bell)
https://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/vegetables-and-pulses-data/