U.S. strawberry producers exported 301,488 million pounds in 2012. Canada received 86 percent of them, followed by Mexico with 7 percent. Canada receives the majority of California’s fresh and frozen exports. Approximately 16.3 percent of the fresh California strawberry crop is annually exported. Mexico, Japan, and Hong Kong also are large importers of California strawberries.
The U.S. is not only the leading strawberry producing country, but is also the fourth largest importer of fresh strawberries. Fresh strawberry imports have increased more than three folds during the past 12 years. Fresh strawberry imports from Mexico reached 231 million pounds in 2011, accounting for 95% of all strawberries that were imported. It is expected that imports from Mexico will continue to increase as its production expanded quickly in the last few years. Mexican strawberries have overlapping production seasons with Florida which has created a competitive market. The large supply of strawberries of lower production cost from Mexico is taking away from the market share of Florida strawberries. The competition will further intensify in the coming years as production in Mexico continues to climb.
The distribution of strawberries affects the environment as diesel trucks have been used in the past to ship the strawberries across the country, to Canada, and to Mexico. Diesel is not very clean which is why they have been slowly updating the trucks to alternative fuels such as natural gas which has a much smaller carbon footprint.