Crops grown almost exclusively in one state (except CA and HI)

Factual Questions
1

I’m looking for crops grown almost exclusively in one US state. By “almost exclusively”, I mean over 90% of US production comes from a single state. But I’m excepting California and Hawaii from this question, because there’s several crops grown almost exclusively in those states. Well, if you really want to, go ahead and list them.

I do know of one crop that’s mainly grown in one state: Filberts (or hazelnuts, if you prefer). About 98% of those are grown in Oregon, with the rest mainly from Washington. Note that this is only US production, which is what I’m looking for. Worldwide, Turkey grows the most filberts, Italy is second, and the US is number 3.

Anyway, you’d think the USDA would have this info, but I couldn’t find it posted anywhere. Not even the USDA website. I did find this page

Which has a lot of sub pages that apparently have the data I’m looking for. But when I got to their page on grape production, I found a problem. It only has data for California and Washington state. I know very well that almost all states produce at least some grapes and several besides CA and WA produce significant quantities, but that page doesn’t mention them at all. So that casts doubt about the entire crop database at that site.

So I’m asking for either a better site or if you know of any crop that’s primarily restricted to being grown in only one state.

2

New Jersey produces more Eggplant than any other country but I have to keep digging for what percentage of the US production.

The numbers are all over the place, I’m trying to see what I can find from the USDA.

I have to withdraw NJ and Eggplants, I found this:

Eggplant is a widely grown specialty vegetable in the United States, however, there are less than 7,000 acres in eggplant production annually. An estimated 142 million pounds of eggplants were grown in the United States in 2015 (ERS 2016). New Jersey leads the nation in acres of eggplant harvested with 849 acres of harvested eggplant in 2019, ahead of California’s 705, Florida’s 685 and Georgia’s 624.

3

I immediately thought of Connecticut and shade grown tobacco, but I have to admit that I’ve seen shade grown tobacco in several other states, including TN.

4

Most of the pears in the US are grown in Washington, followed closely by Oregon.

5

Yes, but Washington doesn’t grow 90% of the pears.

6

Wisconsin grows 60% of US cranberries, so it doesn’t make the cut.

Wisconsin produces 95% of US ginseng, and (surprising to me) it IS (mostly) a cultivated crop, not just found in the woods – so, there’s one for your list.

7

To be totally clear, CA and HI are excluded as states growing 90% of a crop, but their crops aren’t excluded for other purposes, right? Like, if you exclude California citrus, Florida produces more than 90% of the citrus grown in the country, but that’s not what you mean?

North Carolina is very close on flue-cured tobacco (80%), but not quite at the threshold.

8

Flax:

9

ginseng

ETA Ninja’d by @JKellyMap

10

red rasberries

11

These don’t quite meet the 90% criteria, but they are close.

87% of the cranberries are grown in Wisconson and Massachusetts, with Wisconson alone producing just over 60% of the total.

Washington State produces 70% of the apples,74% of the hops, and 67% of the spearmint.

North Dakota produces 73% of the flaxseed.

FL and LA together produce 99% of the sugarcane.

ND and SD together produce 84% of the sunflowers.

Montana produces 72% of the lentils.

Maine produces about 90% of the American Lobsters.

Pennsylvania produces 83% of the mushrooms.

I got the data from here - Agriculture Articles

12

No that’s not what I meant. But I’m having second thoughts about excluding CA and HI. So let’s list those two states too.

Hawaii:

  • pineapple
  • mango
  • guava
  • coffee
  • macadamia nuts

California:

  • almonds
  • artichokes
  • cantalopes
  • celery
  • garlic
  • kiwifruit
  • lemon

The California list was made from that site I linked to in the OP. I gave up before I reached the end. And I have doubts about some on this list (notably garlic and lemon). So feel free to add more and point out errors.

A certain amount of disagreement here.

13

Also missing the 90% mark, is maple syrup from Vermont. Nearby states produce much smaller amounts as well, but Vermont leads. Canada produces about 10 times as much, with almost all of it coming from Quebec.

14

It looks like TokyoBayer’s data is from 2013-2018. Mine is from 2023.

15

2023 data has VT producing less than 50%.

16

Also dates.

17

Another that falls short of the 90% mark is sour cherries. 75% are grown in Michigan:

18

New Mexico - green chiles

19

Unfortunately I can’t find anything more than “most” or “almost all”, but of the remaining (miniscule) key lime production in the US, I would guess Florida might be at or near the 90% threshold.

FWIW, Mexico grows around 97% of the key limes sold in the US.

20

100% of Hatch chiles are grown in the Hatch Valley of New Mexico. I wouldn’t be surprised if 90% of the Big Jim variety were grown in New Mexico. But there are other varieties of green chile, like Anaheims and poblanos, and it seems likely that most of those are grown in other states.