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Specialty crop import increases reflect waning U.S. production

An ag economist says America’s dependance on foreign fruits and vegetables has quadrupled over the past four years.

Michigan Farm Bureau’s Loren Koeman tells Brownfield the pace imports have increased is alarming.

“We continue to import more and more fruits and vegetables, and that deficit is projected to be $63 billion more fruits and vegetables we import than we export,” he says for next year.

He says while consumption of food has been pretty stable, U.S. growers are experiencing significant increases in labor costs and more import pressure during their season.

“We grow about the most asparagus of anywhere in the U.S., yet Peru is dumping their product into our markets at the same time our crop is coming online,” he explains. “We hear stories of people just saying, you know, give me whatever you can for it, we’re just going to ship it anyway, and that’s pretty devastating to our economy here.”

West Michigan apple grower Chris Kropf tells Brownfield labor today makes up nearly 70 percent of his production costs and his farm has stopped replanting.

“I’ve cancelled two of my nursery contracts in the last couple years just because our labor cost is so high and the market has fallen,” he shares.

Koeman says unfortunately many specialty crop growers have been unsuccessful in international trade dumping disputes and are now looking to the federal government to address issues with how H-2A guest worker labor rates are determined.

“We’ve seen increases over 20 percent over the last two years—way, way more than inflation, way, way more than domestic wages—and really there’s something that can be done about that and we’re calling on Congress to do that,” he says.

USDA’s latest estimate is calling for the total ag trade deficit to be a record setting $42 billion in 2025.

AUDIO: Loren Koeman, Michigan Farm Bureau