In 2022, Egypt came out fourth in the ranking of countries supplying frozen strawberries to the US market, EastFruit reports.
The US is the world’s largest importer of frozen fruits and vegetables, including strawberries, actively increasing these imports and being a market willing to pay a premium price for their quality. That is why increasing exports to the United States for countries supplying frozen vegetables and fruits is a major achievement!
Egypt became the fourth largest supplier of frozen strawberries to the United States in 2022, having exported 11 900 tonnes and accounting for almost 7% of all imports in the country. For comparison, Egypt supplied the US market with only 1 100 tonnes of frozen strawberries (slightly more than 1% of the total volume of all supplying countries) five years ago, in 2017, and was the eighth largest exporter in this market.
That is, in five years, Egypt managed to increase the volume of exports to the market of the key importer in the world by more than ten times! Only Latin American countries exported to the United States more than Egypt last year: Peru (20 200 tonnes), Chile (30 400 tonnes), and Mexico (89 000 tonnes).
Apart from increasing its supply of frozen strawberries tenfold from 2017 to 2022, Egypt overtook all its competitors from the countries of the Old World that used to have larger exports to the US market. Thus, during the period under review, Turkey tripled its presence in this market (up to 7 500 tonnes), Morocco – 3.4 times (up to 6 500 tonnes), and Argentina – four times (up to 6 200 tonnes), which was not enough to surpass Egypt.
Another trend in the US market, which EastFruit advises exporters of frozen berries to pay close attention to, is the gradual reduction in the share of Mexico on it. In 2017-2018, Mexico, due to its close location and trade relations, provided about 80% of all frozen strawberry imports to the United States. However, its share began to decline sharply in 2019 and by 2022 it fell to 50%. Meanwhile, the volume of Mexican exports to the United States remained relatively stable, ranging from 80 000 to 110 000 tonnes annually. Imports of frozen strawberries to the USA from 2017 to 2023 increased by 63%, which means that the main contribution to these growth rates was made by the new supplier countries, including Egypt.
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