California produces 99 percent of U.S. prunes, or dried plums, and accounts for roughly 60 percent of world production (CDPB and PBA). In 2012, prune-bearing acreage in the United States fell for the third year in a row, dropping to 55,000 acres. Some 395,000 tons of prune-variety plums were harvested and processed, down from 2011. The total value of production was more than $156.2 million, down 13 percent from the previous year. (NASS 2013) May 2013 ... Prunes
- California Dried Plum Board.
- Food Consumption (per capita) Data System, Economic Research Service (ERS), USDA.
- Fruit and Tree Nuts, ERS, USDA.
- Fruit and Tree Nuts Yearbook, ERS, USDA.
- Noncitrus Fruits and Nuts, National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS).
- Pioneer Study Reveals Dried Plums Effective in the Reduction of Heart Disease, Reuters, 2008 - This animal study suggests that eating dried plums slows the development of an inflammatory disease known as "hardening of the arteries."
- Prune Bargaining Association.
- Prunes, Global Agricultural Trade System (GATS), Foreign Ag Service (FAS), USDA.
- Sample Costs to Establish a Prune Orchard and Produce Prunes, Sacramento Valley, University of California Cooperative Extension, 2012.
- Sunsweet Growers Inc. Dataweb.
Links checked January 2013.