An Inside Look at the Economic Research Service

Data can also be aggregated to assess current year statistics as well as trends over time. In addition to comparisons across major product categories (i.e., fruit, vegetable, tree nuts, dry pulses) shown in ERS tables, per capita use data can be tracked across processing types to show declining utilization of canned fruits and vegetables and juice markets. Using the ERS data directly, similar comparisons can be made within individual commodity markets or customized aggregations.

TRADE SHARE ESTIMATES
Global markets are important factors for the produce industry and ERS fruit and vegetable outlook programs provide estimates of global integration computed for many individual commodities as well as aggregated groups and markets. The share of domestic supply exported or imports for domestic use are available for many commodities; in some cases data is available back to 1970. This is another way to compare markets or to assess whether year-to-year changes are an anomaly tied to specific market conditions or part of an ongoing trend. Having the data to quantify these factors can be a useful business tool.

WHERE TO FIND DATA
The data available on the ERS website is organized as either “Fruit and Tree Nuts” or “Vegetable and Dry Pulses” and in each case, an annual ‘yearbook’ summary is published. The Fruit and Tree Nuts Yearbook is typically released in the fall and Vegetable and Dry Pulses Yearbook is released in the spring.

Each yearbook contains a time series of the annual per capita supply and use data for fresh and processed markets and the annual trade share data. Included are U.S. production, exports, imports, per capita utilization, and prices. For more frequent updates, average prices (sourced from the Bureau of Labor Statistics) and trade data (sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau) are updated monthly on both the “Data by Category” and “Data by Commodity” webpages.

REPORTS
Fruit and vegetables are at the center of many current market and policy-relevant issues, such as healthy eating habits, domestic and global food availability, food safety, pollination, organics, trade, and trade agreements. The ERS publishes a portfolio of reports covering these topics. Data from the ERS market outlook programs can be integrated with other federal and international statistical agencies to facilitate analyses of economic performance over time, and across domestic and foreign markets. Fruit and tree nut and vegetable and pulses newsletters provide timely market intelligence for commodity markets accompanied with detailed tabular and graphical information.

Commodity highlights (background information or a snapshot of a particular commodity market or sector of the industry) and economic insight articles (more detailed analysis of topical issues) are frequently featured in seasonal newsletters and can also be found on the ERS website. Recent examples include an overview of the fruit and tree nut sector, and long-term projections for the vegetable and pulses market.

There are also many standalone ERS articles on a wide range of topics. For example, a September 2014 report entitled “Evolving U.S. Fruit Markets and Seasonal Grower Price Patterns” analyzes pricing for five major U.S. fresh fruit markets between 1980 and 2012.

A good way to stay informed is to receive ERS “Charts of Note”—single charts accompanied by a short description and reference to a longer research report or data product. Not all are fruit or vegetable related, but they can be searched by topic to identify charts of interest.

HOW TO RECEIVE ERS PRODUCTS
Industry members throughout the produce supply chain can stay informed by signing up for various ERS reports. Subscribers can receive weekly announcements, sign up for RSS feeds for instant notification of new releases, or follow ERS on Twitter. To learn more about ERS information and data sets, or to sign up for news feed and email notifications, start at http://ww.ers.gov and click on the “Stay Connected” box.