Pecan growers in the US have been planting at a decent pace over the last decade replacing old varieties with newer more productive varieties that offer better quality as well as growing characteristics best suited for each region. New Orchards have been planted over the years as well but how much increase in production have we actually experienced. 

 

Data on these subjects is somewhat hard to come by for the average grower however we do have some data as reported by the American Pecan Council that shows grower deliveries which is a pretty good representation of the quantity of pecans produced here in the US by American farmers. 

 

 

The data for the last 8 years shows that US pecan growers have produced an average of around 300 million pounds per year. While some years fall short and other years are above that mark we can see that over the last 8 years production is trending upward for US pecan growers. 

 

 

But what about pecan consumption in the US? Again we have limited data on this subject but over the last 7 years the APC (American Pecan Council) has reported pecan shipments to end users and if we back out exports we can better understand domestic consumption*. Over the last 7 years domestic pecan consumption has averaged around 270 million pounds, leaving US growers a surplus of an average of 30 million pounds per year to send to other countries as exports from the US. 

 

Currently American pecan growers can supply all of the domestic consumption in the US as well as around 30 million pounds of pecan exports. While this is not enough to supply all of the exports, US handlers import the remainder of the pecans needed to fill the gap left from pecan exports to other countries. 

*Data does not include pecans imported from foreign countries for consumption in the US.

**APC data is subject to change without notice to industry.

***APC data differs from monthly reports to year end reports.