Seven popular fruits, vegetables and tree nuts often used as the main ingredient in American pies were worth $6.9 billion in U.S. production in 2024, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service (ERS) said in a Chart of Note published on 21 May 2026. Released as summer arrived, the chart noted that the abundance of U.S.-grown produce made the season the perfect time for fruit pies and other desserts.
ERS measured the value of production of the seven commodities by U.S. cash receipts. On that measure apples came first by a wide margin; they are produced abundantly in the United States both by volume and by production value.
Apples and blueberries lead
The U.S. apple crop exceeded $2.9 billion in 2024, and blueberries approached $1.2 billion. According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) Noncitrus Fruits and Nuts 2024 Summary, released in May 2025, commercial bearing apple acreage decreased slightly that year to 299,500 acres, with a yield of 18.12 tons per acre.
Blueberries are perennial flowering plants of the section Cyanococcus in the genus Vaccinium, bearing blue or purple berries. Commercial blueberries, both the wild lowbush and the cultivated highbush kinds, are native to North America, and highbush blueberries were first cultivated in New Jersey around the beginning of the 20th century. NASS put the harvested area of cultivated blueberries in 2024 at 104,800 acres.
Peaches, cherries, pecans, pears and pumpkins
Among the other fruit pie ingredients, peaches were valued at $926 million in cash receipts and cherries at $859 million. The 2024 pear crop was worth $301 million, while pumpkins, which ERS called the fall icon and a mainstay of the holiday table, were valued at $274 million.
Pecans, the one tree nut on the list, brought in $468 million. The pecan (Carya illinoinensis) is a species of hickory native to the southern United States and northern Mexico in the region of the Mississippi River. Capital Press reported on 8 May 2025, citing the NASS figures, that the value of U.S. tree nut production rose 15 percent from 2023 to reach $9.4 billion in 2024.
The wider U.S. fruit picture
NASS reported that utilized production of the 21 noncitrus fruit crops it estimates totaled 15.9 million tons in 2024, down 3 percent from 2023, while their value rose 5 percent to $18.9 billion. Grapes, strawberries and apples had the highest values and together accounted for 69 percent of the total.
The chart, prepared by ERS economist Sara Scott, points readers to the ERS Fruit and Tree Nuts and Vegetables and Pulses Yearbook Tables for more data on specialty crop production.
Photo: Larry D. Moore / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 4.0)
Sources: USDA Economic Research Service, USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service, Capital Press, Wikipedia
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