Puerto Rico’s agricultural production grows to $703M in 2022

Compared to other economic sectors, the island’s agricultural sector is relatively small.
The total value of Puerto Rico’s agricultural production reached $703 million in 2022, up 45% from 2018 when the last Puerto Rico Census of Agriculture was conducted, the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently announced.
The information was collected directly from farmers by the Puerto Rico Department of Agriculture and the University of Puerto Rico Agricultural Extension Service.
“The Puerto Rico Census of Agriculture documents the island’s unique agriculture industry and provides the only source of consistent, comparable data at the regional level,” said Joseph Parsons, administrator of the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
“The new ag census data will help inform policy, program and business decisions that support the island’s agricultural communities. I want to thank our partners in Puerto Rico for their commitment to helping provide a complete and accurate ag census,” Parsons added.
Together, the regions of Arecibo and Ponce comprised more than 40% of the total value of agricultural production. The top municipalities by sales were Santa Isabel with $55.5 million, Arecibo with $54.6 million and Salinas with $45.9 million, according to the 2022 census.
Top commodities by value of sales were milk ($173 million), poultry and poultry products ($111.2 million), and field crops ($74 million). These three commodities accounted for 51% of the value of all agricultural products sold.
Like agriculture trends on the U.S. mainland, the average farm size in Puerto Rico increased from 59.3 cuerdas in 2018 to 65 cuerdas in 2022, while the number of farms declined to 7,602 farms, a loss of 628 farms from 2018. Despite the decline in the number of farms, the amount of farmland increased to 494,481 cuerdas, or 21.9%, of all land in Puerto Rico, up 6,706 cuerdas, or 1.4%, from 2018. (A cuerda is equal to about 3,930 square meters, 4,700 square yards or 0.971 acres.)
Compared to other economic sectors, Puerto Rico’s agricultural sector is relatively small, making up only a fraction of 1% of the island’s gross domestic product (GDP) in 2020, according to the USDA Economic Research Service. Historically, Puerto Rico’s agricultural industry had more economic significance, surpassing 40% of the island’s GDP in the mid-1930s.
A limited amount of Puerto Rico’s agricultural production is exported, with the European Union (EU) and Canada receiving the most exports, the USDA reported.
In September 2017, hurricanes Irma and Maria caused major disruptions, destroying Puerto Rico’s agricultural harvest and infrastructure, with long-lasting effects on the makeup of its agricultural sector.
First conducted in 1840, the Census of Agriculture is a complete count of U.S. and U.S. territory farms, ranches and the people who operate them. This is the 19th Census of Agriculture for Puerto Rico and the sixth conducted by NASS.
The Puerto Rico Census of Agriculture report differs from the U.S. publication to best document agriculture on the island. For example, the Census of Agriculture defines a farm in Puerto Rico as any place from which $500 or more of agricultural products were produced or sold, or normally would have been sold, during the census year. The Puerto Rico report includes data on tropical commodities not included in other census publications, such as cassava, coconuts and plantains.
The Puerto Rico Census of Agriculture also provides specialty data on agriculture production practices, including coffee dryers, emergency electric generators and greenhouse/hydronic sheds, and on unique operator characteristics such as highest year of school completed, the number of people living in the household and retirement status.