The decline was due to reduced consumption of apples and citrus fruit. Bananas, apples, oranges, grapes, and grapefruit continued to be the top five consumed fruit. This was the lowest per capita fresh orange consumption since 1991, when California's orange crop was also reduced by a freeze. Apple consumption also fell in 1999 to 18.8 pounds per person. This is an interesting observation given that many consumers are not confident the latest generation of waxes and other washes applied to the fruit are okay to eat.
Some consumers have a real concern about feeding such product to their children.
In the meantime, grape consumption rose to 8.2 pounds per person, the highest so far. Consumption was up for most other fresh fruit in 1999 as a result of higher production than the year before. Consumption was higher for peaches, pears, cherries, strawberries, and lemons. Higher imports helped boost consumption of pineapples and avocados. Per capita consumption of pears remained unchanged.