Top Other Stone Fruit Producing Countries

Other stone fruit refers to a diverse group of fruit species with a hard pit, such as cherries, apricots, plums, peaches, and nectarines, excluding the most commonly cited ones like peaches and plums. The top countries farming other stone fruits today include China, Turkey, the United States, Iran, and Spain, each benefiting from favorable climates and centuries-old horticultural traditions. The cultivation of stone fruits dates back thousands of years, with evidence of cherry and apricot domestication in ancient China and Central Asia. These fruits spread westward along trade routes such as the Silk Road, reaching the Mediterranean and Europe, where Romans and Greeks further refined their cultivation. By the Middle Ages, stone fruit orchards were well-established across Europe, and European colonists later introduced these crops to the Americas and other continents. Advances in breeding, irrigation, and pest management in the 19th and 20th centuries helped stone fruit agriculture expand globally, making these fruits a staple in temperate and subtropical regions around the world.

Data from United Nations FAO Stat