Dried beans remain a large U.S. pulse crop with production, trade, prices, and domestic availability changing from year to year. USDA data show 2024 production rebounded sharply from 2023, while 2023/24 exports reached a recent high and per-capita availability moved lower.
Table of contents
- Production and harvested area
- Yields, crop value, and prices
- Leading states and bean classes
- Exports and destinations
- Imports and origins
- Domestic availability and stocks
- What the 2024 outlook showed
Production and harvested area
USDA reported U.S. dry edible bean production of 32.380 million hundredweight (cwt) in 2020. Production then fell to 22.407 million cwt in 2021 before reaching 25.734 million cwt in 2022. The 2023 total was 23.910 million cwt. These annual figures are reported in the USDA Economic Research Service’s Vegetables and Pulses Outlook: July 2024 (USDA ERS).
For 2024, USDA estimated dry edible bean production at 31.3 million cwt, up 35% from 2023 in comparable States. This is an estimate rather than a final historical total, and the comparable-State qualification matters when comparing the two years. The estimate appears in Crop Production 2024 Summary (USDA NASS).
Planted acreage followed a similar pattern. U.S. dry edible bean planted area was 1.715 million acres in 2020 and 1.180 million acres in 2023. USDA estimated 2024 planted area at 1.53 million acres, up 33% from 2023 in comparable States. Harvested area was 1.157 million acres in 2023, while the 2024 estimate was 1.50 million acres, also up 33% from 2023 in comparable States (USDA NASS; USDA ERS).
| Measure | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 estimate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Production, million cwt | 32.380 | 22.407 | 25.734 | 23.910 | 31.3 |
| Planted area, million acres | 1.715 | — | — | 1.180 | 1.53 |
| Harvested area, million acres | — | — | — | 1.157 | 1.50 |
The table combines reported annual figures with the 2024 USDA estimate. A dash means that the supplied figures did not provide a comparable value for that year.
Yields, crop value, and prices
Yield changes help explain why production does not move only with planted area. The U.S. dry edible bean yield was 19.6 cwt per acre in 2020, 17.0 cwt per acre in 2021, 21.1 cwt per acre in 2022, and 20.7 cwt per acre in 2023. USDA reported the 2024 average yield as 2,081 pounds per acre, up 18 pounds from 2023 in comparable States. Because 1 cwt equals 100 pounds, the 2024 figure is expressed in a different unit from the earlier cwt-per-acre series; the source does not state a revised cwt figure (USDA NASS; USDA ERS).
The reported U.S. dry edible bean crop value was $1,035.76 million in 2020, $1,053.71 million in 2022, and $999.56 million in 2023. The supplied series does not include a 2021 crop-value figure. In price terms, the all-dry-bean season-average price increased from $31.20 per cwt in 2020 to $40.90 per cwt in 2023 (USDA ERS).
For the September 2023–May 2024 period, the U.S. all-dry-bean grower price averaged $41.42 per cwt, 2% above a year earlier. A separate 2023/24 marketing-year measure placed the all-dry-bean price excluding chickpeas at $41.80 per cwt, 3% above 2022/23. These are different measures and periods, so they should not be treated as interchangeable (USDA ERS; USDA ERS).
Leading states and bean classes
Production is concentrated geographically. North Dakota, Minnesota, and Michigan represented 84% of U.S. surveyed dry-bean planted acreage in 2024. North Dakota planted 650,000 dry-bean acres, up 23% from 2023. Minnesota planted 250,000 acres, up 19%, and Michigan planted 240,000 acres, up 14% (USDA ERS).
Yield leadership can differ from acreage leadership. Idaho averaged 2,446 pounds per acre in dry-bean yield over 2019–23, the highest among the listed producing States. That five-year average is a different statistic from the single-year national yields above, so it describes a longer-term State comparison rather than the 2024 crop alone (USDA ERS).
Bean classes also occupy different shares of planted ground. Pinto beans covered 480.4 thousand planted acres, or 41.8% of comparable-State dry-bean acreage in 2023. Black beans covered 288.5 thousand planted acres, or 25.1% of comparable-State acreage. The acreage and percentages are for comparable States, not an unrestricted all-location total (USDA ERS).
Exports and destinations
U.S. dry-bean exports totaled 925.7 million pounds in marketing year 2020/21, 588.5 million pounds in 2021/22, and 748.1 million pounds in 2022/23. They reached 1.1 billion pounds in 2023/24, up 50% from 2022/23. Marketing-year figures cover the stated marketing periods rather than calendar years (USDA ERS; USDA ERS).
Class-level exports also rose during September–May 2023/24. Pinto-bean exports reached 191.8 million pounds, up 178.6% year over year. All-kidney-bean exports reached 307.0 million pounds, up 57.6%, while black-bean exports reached 190.8 million pounds, up 72.1%. These class figures cover only September–May, not the full marketing year (USDA ERS).
Mexico was the largest destination identified in the supplied figures, receiving 514.9 million pounds of U.S. dry-bean exports in 2023/24, up 125% from the prior year. Canada received 105.1 million pounds, down 2% from the prior year. The destination data show that export growth was not uniform across markets (USDA ERS).
Imports and origins
U.S. dry-bean imports totaled 359 million pounds in marketing year 2023/24, up 10% from 2022/23. The import total is substantially smaller than the 1.1 billion pounds of exports reported for the same marketing year, but the two measures represent separate trade flows and do not by themselves describe domestic consumption (USDA ERS).
Canada supplied 113.1 million pounds of U.S. dry beans in 2023/24, up 35% from the prior year. Nicaragua supplied 60.6 million pounds, up 15%, and India supplied 43.5 million pounds, up 4%. These three origins account for the specific country quantities reported here; the figures should not be read as a complete ranking of every supplier unless the source’s full table is consulted (USDA ERS).
Domestic availability and stocks
U.S. per-capita availability of dry edible beans excluding chickpeas averaged 5.9 pounds over 2018–22. Preliminary per-capita dry-bean availability was 5.5 pounds in 2023, down 2%. The 2018–22 figure is an average across five years, while the 2023 figure is preliminary and is not labeled as a final estimate (USDA ERS).
Availability shifted differently by class. Pinto-bean availability fell 4% from 2022 to 2023. All-kidney-bean availability fell 36% over the same period. Because these are percentage changes without supplied pound totals, they indicate direction and scale of movement rather than a complete volume series (USDA ERS).
Stocks provide another view of short-term supply. December 2023 pinto-bean stocks were 632 million pounds, 8% below December 2022. This is a December inventory comparison, not a full-year production or consumption measure (USDA ERS).
What the 2024 outlook showed
The 2024 outlook combined a larger expected crop with stronger trade. USDA ERS projected 2024 planted acreage for the three largest bean classes to be 15–20% above their 2019–23 average. This is a forecast comparison against a five-year baseline, not a statement that every bean class or every State increased by the same amount (USDA ERS).
The production estimate of 31.3 million cwt, the planted-area estimate of 1.53 million acres, and the harvested-area estimate of 1.50 million acres all point to a much larger 2024 crop than the 23.910 million cwt and 1.180 million planted acres reported for 2023. At the same time, price measures remained elevated: the September 2023–May 2024 grower average was $41.42 per cwt, while the 2023/24 all-dry-bean price excluding chickpeas was $41.80 per cwt. Together, these figures describe a market with expanded expected acreage and production alongside prices above the earlier 2020 and 2023 season-average benchmarks, while the exact measures use different periods and definitions (USDA NASS; USDA ERS; USDA ERS).