With the exception of canned tomatoes, where exports showed hesitant growth, the 2024 results for US foreign sales of tomato pastes and sauces recorded double-digit growth in volume and value.
The monthly export tracker published regularly on our Tomato News website has highlighted a remarkable increase in US foreign sales of tomato paste (codes 200290) in recent months: on our latest situation published on February 14, annual results (January-December) for the US export sector for the year 2024 stand at 420,000 tonnes (metric, t), up by more than 101,000 t (+32%) on the performance for the year 2023; quarterly results (October-December) for the tomato paste sector also show a significant increase (+16%) in US external activity.
This spectacular increase, achieved against a domestic backdrop of increasing processed quantities and falling prices for finished products worldwide (see also additional information below), mainly concerned exports of tomato paste, which were up by almost 104,000 t of finished products (+33%) on the average result for the previous three years; but also external sales of sauces and ketchup, which rose by almost 60,000 tonnes (+19%) on average over the previous three years; and, to a lesser extent, canned tomatoes, which rose by around 5,200 tonnes (+6%) over the same period.
The increase in volume activity was accompanied by a marked rise in revenues: already buoyed in recent years, up to the beginning of 2024, by the rise in world prices for tomato products and in particular tomato paste, the value of US exports of tomato products continued to rise, with the acceleration in quantities more than offsetting the decline in the unit value of products (see also additional information below). At over 933 million USD last year, the total value of tomato paste, canned tomatoes and tomato sauces exported in 2024 is thus up by 210 million USD (+29%) on the 723 million USD annual average for the period 2021-2023. The contribution of each export sector to annual US foreign sales has been broadly stable over the last ten years, with 42% coming from foreign sales of concentrates, 8% from canned products and 49% from exports of sauces and ketchups.
Most export sales are generated in three or four of the seventeen trading regions that make up the world market: over the last ten years, the North American market, essentially made up of Canada, has alone produced 39% of the total value of US exports of tomato products; the proportion represented by this virtually captive market has fallen slightly since 2020, but the value of products exported nevertheless reached 316 million USD in 2024, including 204 million USD for sauces and ketchup, 61 million USD for paste and 50 million USD for canned tomatoes.
US exports are naturally also directed towards other nearby markets in Central America (Mexico and, to a lesser extent, Costa Rica, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic and Honduras): this region has generated more than a quarter of total US sales over the last ten years, and has become increasingly important over the last three years; over this ten-year period, exports of tomato paste have accounted for 53% of the total value achieved in this region, which in 2024 purchased 142 million USD worth of pastes, 131 million USD worth of sauces and ketchup and 21 million USD worth of canned tomatoes.
US sales of tomato products to Far Eastern markets (Japan, South Korea, Taiwan) have contributed 15% of the total value of US exports over the last ten years; half of the result comes from sales of tomato paste and over 42% from sauce sales. In 2024, US sales to this region generated 138 million USD.
Less than 7% of US exports of tomato products are made to Western EU markets; up slightly last year to 88 million USD, these were mainly exports of tomato paste for the Italian and Dutch markets, and sauces & ketchup for the German market.
Last year, US sales of tomato products to other regions generated sales of around 97 million USD, mainly from paste sales (60 million USD) to Mediterranean Africa, Australia-New Zealand and the Middle East, and from exports of sauces and ketchup (35 million USD) to the Middle East and South America.
Some complementary data
Parallel trends in US exports of tomato paste, canned tomatoes and sauces and ketchup from 2015 to 2024.
Evolution of quantities processed in California since 1980.
Indicative price trends for tomato paste from the main export origins since January 2019.
Sources: TDM, WPTC
