The United States is a world leader in pecan production totaling an estimated 115 thousand metric tons (TMT). Georgia led the country with over 40 TMT of pecans grown, despite production being 26.7 TMT lower than the previous year. New Mexico ranked closely behind growing 35.6 TMT of pecans. Georgia and New Mexico accounted for 65.5 percent of U.S. pecans in 2021. Arizona, Texas, and Oklahoma followed those two to round out the top five states for pecans grown.
In addition to being a major grower of pecans, the United States is an exporter of both in-shell and shelled pecans. In-shell exports have been leading shelled exports in terms of volume for years but have decreased each year. The largest decline occurred when China cut imported pecans from the United States from 30 TMT to 10 TMT in 2018 after additional tariffs were levied on U.S. pecans by China. Despite these additional tariffs being removed, imports have not been able to reach the same level as years prior. Mexico is currently the largest importer of U.S. shelled pecans; in 2021 Mexico represented 47.5 percent or 15.6 TMT of in-shell pecans exported from the United States. A large portion of the in-shell nuts exported to Mexico are shelled and then exported back to the United States to be packaged where they will be consumed domestically or exported one more time. Shelled pecan exports from the United States have been on the rise in recent years growing by 10 TMT since 2017. The largest importing countries for U.S. shelled pecans are Canada, the EU(primarily the Netherlands or Germany), and Mexico. These four countries account for 60.3 percent of all shelled pecans exported from the United States, or 19.3 TMT.
Author: Landyn Young
Program Coordinator
Young, Landyn. “U.S. Pecan Trade“. Southern Ag Today 2(45.4). November 3, 2022. Permalink
Photo by Sara Cervera on Unsplash
