California’s Top Agricultural Exports: Data, Rank & Table

Reviewed September 2026 against CDFA Statistics and USDA NASS California data.

Try it: Run your own numbers →

California’s farms generated $61.2 billion in total agricultural production value in 2024, and $23.8 billion of that left the country as exports, per the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA). Almonds, dairy products, and grapes are the state’s largest categories by production value; almonds alone account for roughly 80% of the world’s almond supply. Below is the exact ranking, a source-linked comparison table, and a calculator so you can size any single commodity’s share of the state total yourself instead of taking a rounded claim on faith.

The Direct Answer: California’s Top Commodities and Exports

By production value, CDFA’s 2024 data ranks California’s leading commodity categories as: dairy products at $8.6 billion, almonds at $5.7 billion, and grapes at $5.6 billion. These three alone account for roughly $19.9 billion of the state’s $61.2 billion total farm production value. On the export side — a separate figure, measuring what crosses the border rather than what’s grown — CDFA’s official 2024 export report puts total agricultural export value at $23.8 billion, with almonds historically the single largest export line item.

If you searched for “california agricultural exports,” “top 10 commodities in california,” or “california’s top 5 commodities,” this is the number set you’re looking for. The rest of this article breaks down where each figure comes from, how production value differs from export value, and how to pull the current-year update yourself once CDFA and NASS publish it.

Production Value vs. Export Value — Why They’re Different Numbers

“California top agricultural exports” and “california’s top 10 agricultural commodities” sound like the same question. They aren’t. Production value (CDFA’s headline number) measures the dollar value of everything grown in the state, whether it’s sold domestically, exported, or processed further. Export value measures only what physically leaves the U.S. as agricultural trade. A commodity can rank high on one list and lower on the other.

• Dairy products ($8.6 billion production value, 2024): California’s largest single commodity category by production value, but the majority is sold domestically, so it doesn’t dominate the export rankings the way almonds do.
• Almonds ($5.7 billion production value, 2024): Second-largest by production value, and the state’s leading export commodity — CDFA and USDA/FreshPlaza both cite roughly 80% of global almond supply as California-grown.
• Grapes ($5.6 billion production value, 2024): Third-largest by production value, spanning table, wine, and raisin grapes, each with distinct export channels.

A useful gut-check: California’s irrigated farmland covered 7.8 million acres in 2023 according to USDA NASS’s most recent irrigation survey — the physical base that supports all of the dollar figures above. Farm cash receipts (a related but distinct measure from production value) totaled $51.1 billion in 2021 per CDFA’s 2022 Ag Statistics Review.

Top California Commodities Comparison Table

Note the gap in the middle rows: CDFA’s most recent full commodity-level export breakdown available in this research was 2021 ($4.6 billion almonds, $2.5 billion dairy), while total export value is confirmed current through 2024 ($23.8 billion). CDFA’s annual export report — published each July for the prior July–June fiscal year — is the place to pull the 2022–2024 commodity-level almond and dairy export splits once you need them; see the verification section below for the direct path.

California Agricultural Exports: The $23.8 Billion Breakdown

CDFA’s 2024–2025 export statistics report (PDF, cited below) sets total California agricultural export value at $23.8 billion for 2024. That figure sits inside a longer national context: as of USDA’s 2020 accounting, California generated about 16% of all U.S. agricultural export value by itself — one state supplying roughly a sixth of the nation’s farm export earnings.

Two commodity-specific shares explain why exports concentrate so heavily around a handful of crops:

• Almonds: California supplies approximately 80% of the world’s almonds (USDA/FreshPlaza, 2024), which is why almonds consistently top the state’s export rankings even though they rank second in raw production value.
• Fruits and nuts broadly: California grows about 75% of the fruits and nuts produced in the United States (CDFA, 2024) — the category that anchors most of the state’s specialty-crop export volume.
• Lettuce: California supplies about 70% of the U.S. lettuce supply (USDA/FreshPlaza, 2024) — mostly a domestic-market crop, but relevant context for why “California agriculture” and “California exports” aren’t interchangeable phrases.

Export destinations for California crops historically span Asia (China, Japan, South Korea), the Americas (Mexico, Canada), and Europe (Germany, UK, Spain, Netherlands), with almond and dairy export volumes shifting year to year based on tariff conditions in each market — a subject covered in more depth in our companion piece on retaliatory tariffs hitting California exports.

How Much of the World’s Food Does California Actually Supply?

There is no single published figure for “the percentage of the world’s food California produces” — that framing doesn’t match how CDFA, USDA, or FAO report data, and no source in this research set provides it. What does exist, and what answers the underlying question people are actually asking, is a set of commodity-specific shares:

• 80% of global almond supply (USDA/FreshPlaza, 2024)
• 75% of U.S. fruit and nut production (CDFA, 2024)
• 70% of U.S. lettuce supply (USDA/FreshPlaza, 2024)

If you need a defensible “California feeds X% of the world” statement for a specific commodity, build it from that commodity’s global production total (FAO or USDA Foreign Agricultural Service publish these) divided into California’s output from CDFA’s commodity reports — don’t rely on a rounded blanket claim, because none of the primary sources make one.

County-Level Data: Fresno and the Central Valley

Search interest around “california agricultural statistics review 2019-2020” fresno 7,714,540 points to CDFA and NASS’s county-level production tables, published inside the annual Ag Statistics Review. Fresno County has consistently ranked among California’s top agricultural-producing counties by gross value — the Central Valley broadly (Fresno, Kern, Tulare, Merced) is where the majority of the state’s almond, grape, and processing-tomato acreage sits, supported by the 7.8 million irrigated acres NASS measured statewide in 2023.

For the exact county-by-county figures — including the specific $7,714,540 line item referenced in the 2019–2020 review, and the 2021 county rankings referenced in the 2021–2022 review — go directly to the source documents rather than a secondary summary:

• 2019–2020 review and later editions: published by CDFA and archived by USDA NASS at NASS California Annual Statistical Reviews.
• 2021–2022 review (the edition covering “agricultural counties 2021”): the 2022 Ag Stats Review PDF, hosted at NASS’s 2022 Ag Stats Review, which also carries the $51.1 billion 2021 farm cash receipts figure cited above.

Each edition of the Ag Statistics Review is county-indexed and carries exact per-county totals to the dollar — the $7,714,540-style figures are real line items inside those tables, not aggregates, which is why searching for the number directly inside the PDF is faster than looking for a summary of it.

Calculator: Your Commodity’s Share of California’s Ag Economy

Enter any commodity’s production or export value to see what share it represents of California’s $61.2 billion production total or $23.8 billion export total, and how that compares to almonds’ benchmark share.

Assumptions: uses CDFA’s 2024 total production value ($61.2B) and 2024 total export value ($23.8B) as fixed benchmarks; almond comparison uses the $5.7B 2024 almond production figure. Excludes processing/value-added margins, farm-gate vs. wholesale pricing differences, and any year other than 2024 — re-run with updated totals once CDFA publishes newer figures.

Retail Food Environment Context: A Note on the Santa Clara County Study

One search this page is asked to answer references a specific document: the “Status of Latino Hispanic Health” Santa Clara County 2012 food retail environment assessment, which examined store types, produce pricing, and the variety of vegetables available across retail formats in that county. That is a public-health retail-access study, not a CDFA or NASS agricultural production dataset, and it sits outside this research brief’s evidence base — none of the sources gathered here contain its store-type or produce-pricing tables.

If that Santa Clara County document is what you need, it will be indexed under Santa Clara County Public Health Department’s community health assessment archives rather than a farm-statistics agency; CDFA and NASS (the two sources this article draws from) don’t publish retail-environment or store-format data. We flag this distinction directly rather than force an unrelated production-value figure to answer a retail-access question — the two data domains don’t overlap, and treating them as if they do would misstate both.

Tariffs, Trade Routes, and Export Risk

Export value figures like the $23.8 billion 2024 total aren’t insulated from trade policy. Retaliatory tariffs on U.S. agricultural goods have repeatedly hit California’s export-heavy commodities — almonds, dairy, and wine among them — because these are precisely the categories most exposed to international buyers. Our companion analysis, California Agricultural Exports Hit by Retaliatory Tariffs, covers which markets have imposed tariffs and how exporters have adjusted routing and destination mix in response — read that piece for the trade-policy angle; this article stays focused on production and export volume data.

Monitoring Export-Grade Crops with Satellite Data

Meeting export-market quality and traceability requirements starts on the field, well before a crop reaches a port. Farmonaut’s satellite monitoring tools apply to exactly the commodities driving California’s export totals above:

• Vegetation and water-stress monitoring: NDVI/NDWI satellite data helps growers of almonds, grapes, and other export crops manage irrigation against the 7.8-million-acre irrigated base NASS tracks statewide.
• Carbon footprint tracking: Export buyers in the EU and parts of Asia increasingly ask for emissions data alongside a shipment. Farmonaut’s carbon footprinting tools generate that documentation at the field level.
• Product traceability: Blockchain-based traceability supports origin-verification requirements that export markets attach to premium categories like almonds and wine grapes.
• Fleet and logistics management: Coordinating harvest-to-port timing matters most for perishables; fleet management tools help align harvest crews and transport schedules.
• Large-scale farm administration: Operations spanning multiple counties or crop types use the agro admin app to manage diversified acreage from one dashboard.
• Forest and plantation advisory: Land bordering orchard and vineyard acreage often includes forestry or mixed-use parcels; see crop, plantation, and forest advisory for that layer.

How to Verify These Numbers Yourself Next Season

Every figure above will move as new reporting years close. Rather than re-searching for a fresh “top commodities” article next year, pull the update directly from source:

1. Production value by commodity (2024 data updates to 2025, etc.): CDFA’s Statistics page (cdfa.ca.gov/Statistics) posts preliminary figures by calendar year, with final numbers typically released by the following September.
2. Export value, total and by commodity: CDFA’s export statistics reports (the 2024–2025 export report PDF is the current edition) update each July, covering the prior July–June fiscal year.
3. Acreage, irrigation, and crop-specific production: USDA NASS Quick Stats (nass.usda.gov/Statistics_by_State/California) lets you filter by commodity and year, with some preliminary reports mid-year and final figures by December.

That three-source checklist — CDFA production stats, CDFA export reports, NASS Quick Stats — is the durable part of this article. The dollar figures above will age; the method for refreshing them won’t.

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