CALIFORNIA - It takes a lot of dedication—and support—to grow 90 percent of United States produced strawberries, but California strawberry growers wouldn’t have it any other way. In the Golden State, 400 growers, shippers, and processors work tirelessly to bring America’s favorite fruit to store shelves from coast to coast.
Did you know that demand for fresh and frozen strawberries averaged 3.3 billion pounds per year—or 9 million pounds per day—growing 3.5 percent annually. Plus, strawberry consumption is only increasing. About 1.2 million more pounds of strawberries were sold each day in 2023 than were sold daily in 2019.
Retailers sell an average of $9.6 million worth of fresh strawberries per day, which is $3.5 billion annually. In retail stores, fresh strawberries accounted for 44.5 percent of all berry dollar sales, 10.3 percent of fruit aisle sales, and 5 percent of produce department sales.
Consumers purchased an average of 3.4 pounds of fresh strawberries from retailers annually, growing 4.5 percent per year. In fact, they consumed nearly 195 million more pounds in 2023 than they did in 2019.
California supplied 71.6 percent of all fresh strawberries in the U.S. market, averaging $2.6 billion per year.
California-grown strawberries continue to reign supreme in the produce aisle and in consumer kitchens, and the California Strawberry Commission is here to support.
