How the U.S. uses most of its apples. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours.
There are a lot of ways to eat them – pies, cobblers, crisps, with peanut butter, or cheese or made into sauce or cider. However, new data from USDA’s Economic Research Service (ERS) shows a majority of apples are used in juices.
In 2021, 45.9 pounds of apples per person were available for domestic consumption, according to USDA’s Food Availability data product. Fifty-two percent of the available apples for U.S. domestic use, 23.7 pounds per person, was in the form of juice or cider, or about two gallons per person. Fresh apples accounted for 34 percent, 15.8 pounds per person. Canned, frozen, dried, and other forms made up the remaining 14 percent of apple availability in 2021. Over the last ten years, per-person apple availability reached a high of 49.2 pounds per person in 2016.
Much of the decrease since 2016 was because of declining availability of fresh apples. In 2016, fresh apple availability was 19.3 pounds per person.
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Sabrina Halvorson
National Correspondent / AgNet Media, Inc.
Sabrina Halvorson is an award-winning journalist, broadcaster, and public speaker who specializes in agriculture. She primarily reports on legislative issues and hosts The AgNet News Hour and The AgNet Weekly podcast. Sabrina is a native of California’s agriculture-rich Central Valley.