Current surges in the prices of fresh vegetables in the United States from weather, inflation or tariffs could ameliorate through 2025.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) on August 25, 2025, fresh vegetable rates might decrease by 0.8%, year-on-year (y-o-y).
The USDA gives the decrease an accuracy interval of -2.3 and 0.8%, which more or less indicates stable estimates.
For now, however, prices of fresh and dry vegetables are still experiencing record surges. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics cites a 38.9% increase y-o-y in wholesale prices for July 2025.
The key driver for the notch up is wholesale inflation, which rose by 0.9% in July, month-on-month and 3.3%, y-o-y.
The USDA in its part records that fresh vegetable rates increased by 1.7% monthly in July 2025 but were down by 0.8% annually.
The monthly increases however continued steadily, beginning April through May 2025 by 0.3% and then May to June by 0.7%.
Key veggies that experienced price surges included onions, carrots, lettuce and tomatoes due to weather vagaries in Florida and California.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, wholesale fresh or dry lettuce grew pricier by 133%, y-o-y, while spinach by 157.4%.
These spikes were apparently the highest since March 2022 when prices of wholesale fresh/dry vegetables had gained by 42.4%, annually.
A tariff-related price steadiness hounded tomatoes after the U.S. imposed 17.09% duty on imports from Mexico on July 14, 2025.
But with the USDA predicting the amelioration of yearly rates by at least 0.8%, consumers can expect relief along the year. The following statistics help foster this expectation by showing trends in the past.
United States Fresh Vegetable Prices Statistics
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, via the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), 2024 saw relatively low vegetable prices than recent years. In 2024, the consumer price index (CPI) for fresh veggies was down 0.5% annually while that for frozen vegetables shed 1.3%. This is even as canned greens decreased in pricing by 0.6% for the period between October 2023 and October 2024.
How did Export (FOB) prices of key vegetables from the U.S. perform between 2022 and 2024?
Some of the primary vegetables that the U.S. exports fresh, along with their freight-on-board prices include:
Broccoli: the highest price for export broccoli in the 2022-24 period was in November 2022 at over $2 a pound. The lowest for the timeline was in July 2022 at around $0.5 a pound.
Carrots: the top 2022-24 price was October 2024’s at nearly $0.7 a pound while the lowest August 2022’s at below $0.4.
Tomatoes: tomatoes peaked at over $1.3 a pound in November 2022, but had their lowest point in July 2022 at below $0.4.
Sweet corn: the highest FOB export price for American sweet corn in the 2022-24 period was March 2024. This was at nearly $0.9 a pound, while the lowest in June 2022 at nearly $0.3 a pound.