Crop Insurance Today Second Quarter 2022 - 10

for their navy and black bean production recording
record yields of 2,700 and 2,480 pounds per
acre respectively.
Drought conditions wreaked havoc in U.S.
lentil production in 2021 with yields down 47
percent from the previous year. Increased acres,
up almost 35 percent from the previous year,
failed to offset yield declines resulting in 2021
lentil production of 5.09 million cwt, down over
31 percent from 2020.
Hay
Drought conditions weighed on dry hay
production across almost all producing states
resulting in declines in both area harvested and
yields in 2021. All dry hay production was 120.1
million tons in 2021, down five percent from the
previous year. The declining numbers were the
result of a combination of a lower area harvested,
50.7 million acres, down five percent from 2020
and a lower average yield of 2.37 tons per acre,
down 2.5 percent over the same period. On an
individual state-by-state basis, production remained
variable, with record yields experienced
in California, Georgia, and Nevada contrasted
with record low harvested acres in Connecticut,
Delaware, Minnesota, North Dakota, Oregon,
Vermont, and Wisconsin.
By category, alfalfa and alfalfa mixtures account
for about 41 percent of total dry hay production,
declining across all metrics in 2021 with
production down seven percent, harvested area
down six percent and average yield down just
over one percent from 2020. All other hay production,
71.0 million tons or 51 percent of the
total, also declined across the board with production
down four percent from 2020 in combination
with a one percent reduction in harvested
acres and a reduction in average yield of about
2.4 percent.
Fresh Produce and Vegetables
2
In 2021 there was decline of four percent in
total production from the previous year of the 26
vegetable and melon markets tracked by USDA.
The decline in production was linked to falling
yields due to extreme heat combined with reductions
in planted acreage due to a lack of an adequate
supply of water for irrigation.
The largest crops in terms of total production
among the 679 million hundred weight produced
in 2021 were tomatoes, onions, and sweet corn
accounting for 53 percent of the total. Individually
some crops did better than others in 2021. For
example, tomatoes and sweet corn had modest
increases in production while onion production
was down 8.3 percent from the previous year.
Other vegetables that were particularly stressed
in 2021 included spinach, down 13.8 percent;
broccoli, down 12.6 percent; cauliflower, down
11.7 percent; and all lettuce down 11.3 percent. In
terms of value of production, tomatoes, Romaine
lettuce, and onions accounted for 28 percent of
the total $12.7 billion value, a 10 percent decline
in total value from 2020. The utilized production
for 2021, a proxy for consumption, was estimated
at 675 million cwt, also down four percent
from the previous year. The lingering impact of
the pandemic-era on demand dampened prices,
despite the decline in available domestic supplies.
For example, the index of prices received by vegetable
growers in 2021 fell by six percent from last
year with lower prices for 11 of the 12 vegetables
in the monthly price index. The decline in the
vegetable prices received index was the largest
year-to-year fall since 2012.3
The road to recovery will likely be a volatile
one, as continued drought and extreme heat,
along with a recovering food service industry
demand already has resulted in a 22 percent increase
in the vegetable producers' prices received
index during the first quarter of 2022. The impact
of the current geopolitical issues will influence
input and transportation costs for some time
to come.
Citrus
The 2021 Citrus season was not good with
declines in all citrus commodities except for California
tangerines. A variety of factors contributed
to the decline in production. For example,
grapefruit production was down 46 percent from
last year due in large part to Texas winter storm
Uri in mid-February. In California, continued
drought in the San Joaquin Valley contributed
to a 17 percent decline in grapefruit production
from the previous year. While in Florida lower
grapefruit production volumes were linked to
decline in bearing acres attributed to continuing
problems with citrus greening disease.
2 Beginning with the 2021 Vegetables Summary, USDA will no longer provide a summary of the 26 major crop statistics totals by
state. Statistics for the 26 individual products by state are available by accessing https://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/.
3 Vegetables and Pulses Outlook, USDA, ERS, VGS-368, April 29,2022, pg. 2. https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/
outlooks/103821/vgs-368.pdf?v=6015.8
10 SECONDQUARTER2022
Overall total utilized production of citrus was
6.9 million tons, 12 percent below last year. California
continued as the major citrus producing
state accounting for 60 percent of total U.S. production.
Florida, the second largest citrus producer,
accounted for 28 percent total production
with production in Texas and Arizona contributing
the remaining two percent.
Utilized citrus production in California was
down three percent from the previous year.
However, it was limited to orange production
of 50.1 million boxes, down seven percent from
last year and the decline in grapefruit production
described above. In contrast, domestic tangerine
and mandarin production increased from
last year, reaching its second highest level in 50
years at 788,000 tons, largely due to the 25 percent
increase of production in California. A long
growing season with increased yield, up over 23
percent from last year, and additional 1.5 percent
increase in bearing acres coming on board,
contributed to the California 2021 production
increase.
Florida orange production of 52.8 million
boxes in 2021 was down 22 percent from the previous
year. Continued decline in bearing acres
and lower yields contributed to the reduction in
orange production. Florida tangerine and mandarin
production was down 13 percent from the
previous year also attributable to a decline in
bearing acres and lower yields. Florida overall
citrus production is constrained by their large
number of older, less productive trees and disease
issues.
Production of the other major citrus crop,
lemons, is concentrated in California, accounting
for 96 percent of 2021 domestic production
of 22.1 million boxes. Arizona accounted for the
remaining four percent with 800,000 boxes produced
in 2021. In both states, while bearing acres
remained constant from the previous year, yields
fell significantly, down 16 percent in California
and 55 percent in Arizona. The large decline in
Arizona production is linked to higher fruit drop
attributed to the near-record high spring temperatures
in the major production region of the
Yuma Valley.
[Information sources for this section include
USDA NASS 2021Production Summaries: Crops,
January 2022; 2021Citrus Fruits, September 2021;
Vegetables, February 2022. and USDA, ERS, Vegetable
and Pulses Outlook: April 2022, VGS-368;
USDA, ERS, Fruit and Tree Nuts Outlook: September
2021, FTS-373.]

https://quickstats.nass.usda.gov/ https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/outlooks/103821/vgs-368.pdf?v=6015.8 https://www.ers.usda.gov/webdocs/outlooks/103821/vgs-368.pdf?v=6015.8

Crop Insurance Today Second Quarter 2022

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