The United States is the largest producer of farm-raised turkeys in the world.

That's a statement that raises several questions: How many turkeys are raised on American farms? Where are these turkeys raised within the United States? If the U.S. is the world's largest producer, does it export turkeys to anywhere else in the world?

Photo by 🇨🇭 Claudio Schwarz | @purzlbaum on Unsplash

In 2019, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates the answer is 229 million turkeys! And as for where they are raised within America, we created an interactive map to show where farm-raised turkeys can be found within the U.S.

The answer to the third question is yes, the U.S. does export food products made from farm-raised turkeys elsewhere in the world. In the twelve months from October 2019 through September 2020, at least other 87 nations or their territories received turkey products from the U.S. The U.S. Census Bureau's estimates the value of these turkey products added up to more than $441 million.

As for where they specifically went, we created another interactive map, this time of the world, to visualize which countries imported turkey products from the U.S.

The data for the United Kingdom, France, and the Netherlands includes the value of turkey products exported to their overseas territories, many of which are in the Americas where turkeys are a native species, and which account for bulk of their indicated consumption.

Meanwhile, Mexico is the largest consumer of turkey products exported by the U.S., accounting for over $276 million (63%) of the total value of U.S. exports to the world. China was a distant second at $19.4 million (4%), as it significantly increased its imports of U.S.-produced turkey meat to help meet its 'Phase 1' trade agreement obligations and to partially compensate for its extreme shortage of pork resulting from its 2019 outbreak of African Swine Fever within its domestic hog farms.