In particular, I’m wondering what kind of stuff from the US would be sold in a European supermarket. What’s worth all the expense and time of shipping it across that big body of water?
Well, we’re the world’s largest (or maybe second to Canada, I’m not sure offhand) exporter of wheat, so I would assume some of it ends up in Europe. Cheerios and others are available, in Britain at least–don’t know if they’re made here and shipped over there or not.
They don’t want our beef, and oddly enough the Budweiser is brewed elsewhere under license (if I want pisswater, I’ll take the real thing, thank you very much). I think we’re also very large exporters of pork, but I would assume the EU doesn’t like that for the same reasons they don’t like our beef. I think Europe gets most of its oranges and OJ from Portugal, and maybe Spain and Brazil.
What’s that leave? Chickens, though I doubt much of that makes its way anywhere else. Ummm…perhaps some hops from the Northwest, although that doesn’t seem likely…veggies from California, if there are any that can’t grow as well in Spain or France…
In short, dunno. I’ll stick with the wheat.
US food exports to Europe are huge. American agribusiness is alive and kicking. Try these for starters: sugar, soybeans, wheat, rye, oats, barley, corn, rice, fruits and vegetables, nuts.
I think that because of the movie industry, software giants, etc., people forget that California is primarily an agricultural state (and I’m not even counting the ganja) and rakes in billions of dollars each year. Am sure that farm belt states report the same profits for grains. In England, grocery stores list where produce is from and it’s amazing how many US products are included. Kiwis from Chico, CA, was my favorite sighting.
I wish I could provide you some stats, but it’s 104 degrees in this garden of Eden and I’m grumpy.
If you’re talking, processed, ready to eat food, there probably isn’t a whole lot.
But if you’re looking at unprocessed food (wheat, corn, rice), the U.S. ships out a whole bunch of stuff.
According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the U.S. is the world’s leading exporter of wheat (over 27 million metric tons in 1998, beating out Canada by 10 million metric tons) and corn (42 million to Argentina’s 12 million).
The leading importer of wheat is Egypt. The only European countries in the top 10 are Spain and Belgium. It’s quite possible that they get most of their wheat from France and Germany who export quite a bit of the stuff.
As for corn, the only European countries in the top 10 of importers are Spain and the Netherlands and it’s possible that they get most of theirs from France, Hungary, and Germany.
I would assume that the USDA probably has oodles of reports on the web that can answer this question. Just think of the people in DC whose job it is total this stuff up. Read their work. Probably nobody else does.
A sign posted at the local frozen custard establishment, “Fritz’s”, says that prices have been raised because of a butter fat shortage. Hoof 'n Mouth in Europe has created a demand for U.S. butterfat and the price of that comodity has been jacked up. So I guess that’s one product that’s exported. At least for a while.
According to the always exciting, Handbook of Agriculture 2000 published by our good friends at the US Dept. of Agriculture, the biggest importer of American wheat in Europe is Italy at 606,000 metric tons. However, the former Soviet Union, divided into its many separate nations imports 813,000 metric tons. Apparently, statistically, we the government doesn’t separate out how much goes to each country.
The UK is the leading European importer of U.S. rice at 96,000 metric tons. (Canada, Mexico, Brazil and even Japan buy a lot more)
Europeans don’t like to eat our corn (maize) and only the former Soviet Union is a steady customer for that. On the other hand, the Japanese buys over 15 million metric tons of it (most of which seems to get put on pizzas over there.)
Horsemeat 
. I have heard that the majority of US horses intended for human consumption are shipped to Europe, Japan and Canada, although I think the the horses shipped to Canada for slaughter are then shipped again oversesas.
Cranberries. That’s my best guess, since virtually all the cranberries in the world are grown in the US. (http://www.oceanspray.com/cran_citrus/funfacts.htm) Though the faq doesn’t mention it, I’ve heard many times that “most” of them come from the bogs in MA. I think the bogs are pretty, actually. I don’t know how popular they are overseas, what with not having Thanksgiving to buy cranberry sauce for. Cranberry wine is quite good too, so if you’re ever in Plymouth, MA, go to the Great Bay winery 
In Australia, I almost never see “made in the USA” on anything, food or otherwise. And when I do see it, it will be on something a little quirky - a model railway part or somesuch. I guess Australian produce is too similar to warrant the expense.
We produce nearly all our own food, and for electronic goods, we normally look to Asia.
Oh hang on…Jack Daniel’s and Jim Beam!!! You can keep yer beer though. 
Believe it or not, a lot of U.S. beer is sent to Japan, but in different packaging to suite their society, but I think it still says “Made in America” on it. The Japenese, for whatever reason, seem to be fond of anything American.
As a Canadian who buys groceries:
- There is a lot of American wine on the shelves. Granted, there is even more French and Italian wine, but that tends to be more expensive (and except at the high end, comparable in quality).
- Most of our non-tropical fruit, save apples and cherries, comes from the States. Ditto the largest chunk of our vegetables.
- Yadda yadda hi Opal blah blah.
- For that matter, a lot of our processed food comes from south of the 49th too. Stuff like breakfast cereal, ketchup and so forth.
- Our flour comes from Ontario. Which is really weird, because I live in the middle of Saskatchewan, which produces 60% of Canada’s wheat. Talk about coals to Newcastle.
- Never seen horseflesh on the grocery shelves here
- elfkin: About 15% of the cranberries in the world are grown in Canada, interestingly, almost all of that in metropolitan Vancouver. (Sources: Various webpages and Canadian Geographic magazine. Annual world production: 500 million pounds. Annual Canadian production: 65-70 million pounds.) Also, most of the world’s cranberry consumption is in Canada and the U.S., so I don’t think it really counts as an export. Only 30-40% of the U.S. crop comes from Massachusetts; depending on the Web site, either MA or Wisconsin has the larger share.
- You can get American beers here, although why you’d want to is beyond me. More often than not it’s been brewed in Canada though, under licence.
If you’re looking for weird food exports, you wouldn’t think it from a subarctic place like northern Saskatchewan, but we are a producer and exporter of rice. Sask. produces upwards of 50% of the world’s “non-cultivated” wild rice.
I can second pkbites on American beer in Japan. Lots of other American foodstuffs here: beef - my local yakiniku (Korean BBQ) shop gets all it’s meat in boxes labeld USDA, fruits (especially cherries and citrus fruits - I’m quite pleased to find ruby red Texas greapfruit, being a Texan, and all), veggies, pork (there’s a big ad campaign on cable TV now for American pork), etc.
In this corner of Yurrup, at least, packaged foods from the US are sold as specialty items. The market is primarily American expats as well as locals who have spent some time in the US, and the prices, as you would expect, are high. This doesn’t mean that things like Kellogg’s Corn Flakes or Heinz Tomato Ketchup are specialty items, but they are manufactured under license somewhere in Europe.
You’re most likely to find foodstuffs marked “USA” in the produce section, actually. Although most of the produce for sale in Norway (outside of our own growing season) is from the Mediterranean basin, or from huge greenhouses in places like the Netherlands, sometimes American produce is cheaper on the wholesale market. Or sometimes its a specialty item, like the cranberries that have already been mentioned.
The Florida Citrus Board or whatever they call themselves, by the way, must be some kind of marketing gods. Their claim that Florida oranges make the best juice has been imprinted on consumers’ brains even this far from the Sunshine State.
What about stuff like peanut butter and tomato ketchup? Items that would have a limited market, and hence be unsuitable for domestic production?
I can’t imagine the people of Spain, for example, setting aside land for peanut farming and building a factory to supply the country with the fifty pounds of peanut butter they probably consume annually.
You can buy things like Vegamite here in Brooklyn grocery stores, if you look hard enough, and we sure as heck don’t whip any up on THIS side of the puddle.
Is there an “ethnic foods” section in European supermarkets, stocked with Heinz and Jiffy?
I think the American Navy Bean is used as the raw material for baked beans in the UK. British growers have tried to produce a home-grown version of this but the climate is wrong to give to right sort of bean. Californian walnuts are the best (better than those from Italy). I always treat myself to these even though they are expensive. I was confused about the point on Budweiser beer. I thought the real Bud was brewed in the Czech Republic and the US version is second rate in comparison.