Specialty crop growers are facing an unprecedented economic crisis, with the National Potato Council reporting potential losses of $500 million for russet potatoes alone this year.
While the USDA recently announced $12 billion in one-time bridge payments to American farmers, only $1 billion was earmarked for specialty crops, sugar and other unspecified commodities not covered by the Farmer Bridge Assistance Program, leaving the industry in need of billions in federal aid.
“We throw the word ‘unprecedented’ around a lot, but in this case, it really is unprecedented,” says Kam Quarles, CEO of the National Potato Council and a co-chair of the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance, adding that farmers, including growers of specialty crops, are in economic crisis.
“Just for the russet variety of potatoes alone, we’re looking at potentially half a billion dollars in losses this year,” he says.
Losses brought about by what Quarles calls a “multi-layered perfect storm” of substantially higher input prices on pesticides and fertilizer, soaring ag labor costs and a bumper crop of potatoes at a time when major players in the global marketplace are pulling back on purchases in reaction to softness in the global economy.
“You’ve got a big crop that was expensive to grow, coupled with some uncertainty with substantial players, customers, not purchasing at the pace they normally would be. It’s simple supply and demand,” he says. “You’ve got more supply out there than the demand can support, and that is a pretty common refrain, not just for our commodity but really across agriculture right now.”
Why were specialty crops largely excluded from the USDA’s farm aid package?
“I think the administration is dealing with a difficult situation in that they just don’t have enough resources to cover the need; the scope of what’s facing us and not just specialty crops, obviously, but nearly all of us in agriculture,” Quarles says.
The difference between program crops and specialty crops is also a factor.
“Program crops are called program crops for a reason. They have government programs supporting them,” he says. “Specialty crops do not. And those program crops also have a futures market underpinning each one of those commodities, so it’s very easy to structure a trigger for government relief when they see substantial price declines in a particular commodity, then the government will kick in and help those producers.
“Specialty crops don’t have any of those futures markets, so it was relatively simple to construct a process to get that $11 billion of the $12 billion out the door to the program crops,” he continues. “It’s much more complicated to deal with specialty crops that have never been structured in the way that program crops are to be a partner with the government.”
Will There Be More Funding for Specialty Crops in 2025?
Following the USDA announcement of farm aid, the International Fresh Produce Association and its CEO Cathy Burns, who is also a co-chair of the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance, encouraged its members to influence agricultural policy and support specialty crop growers by helping to circulate a “Dear Colleague” letter urging agriculture committee leaders to deliver targeted economic aid for specialty crop growers and to press USDA to release the $1 billion slated for non-FBA commodities.
“We recognized that the administration was not going to have access to enough money,” Quarles says. “We knew what that universe looked like, and that the universe wasn’t big enough, so we assumed that we were going to have to go back to Congress and make our case for a much bigger second round of funding.”
How much additional funding is needed?
Quarles says specialty crops need between $4 billion and $5 billion, but as they represent roughly 33% of U.S. ag crop production, it stands to reason specialty crops would receive about a third of whatever additional funds are distributed.
To see those funds delivered, specialty crops will need to attach the relief to something that will get to the president’s desk and be signed.
“Around here, we call it a ‘must pass vehicle,’ something that Congress has to deal with,” he says. “Introducing a bill that is perfect but has no chance of getting the votes in either the House or the Senate is a useless exercise. You’ve got to attach it to something that’s going to go.
“A huge amount of the focus right now is: how do we get the number right from Congress, and how do we get it to the president’s desk?” he adds.
Quarles and fellow Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance co-chairs, including Burns; Dave Puglia, president and CEO of Western Growers; and Mike Joyner, president of the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association, along with other industry leaders, have a track record of making specialty crop farmers’ voices heard and getting funded.
“Over several different farm bills, we have been very good at just wrapping our arms around the entire specialty crop industry and unifying our voices around big issues,” says Quarles, pointing to the MASC (Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops) program as an example of something that wasn’t farm bill related but was structured in a way that worked for policy makers.
“We’re doing that exact same thing right now in terms of this big specialty crop relief package,” he says. “It’s not technically a Farm Bill Alliance effort, because it’s not — it’s not a farm bill that’s going to carry it — but it’s all the same players, all the same structure of communication and coordination that has worked so well for the industry in the past.
“We were able to get, very successfully, to the finish line on the MASC payments back in July, he continues,” he adds. “We’ve been able also to deliver our wins on farm bills in the past. We know how to get these things done. It starts with data. We have to be able to explain our situation and the causes of it to the policy makers as well as to the public. We’re doing that, and I think we’re doing it pretty effectively right now.”
Quarles says specialty crops working together is also critical to success.
“Anybody who thinks a single commodity is going to go pull some kind of rabbit out of their hat through one-off efforts is kidding themselves,” he says. “This is going to be all of specialty crops, and really all of agriculture, providing the support to the House and Senate … to give them our best advice on what that top line number needs to be. And then, certainly, we’ve got to be out there justifying why this is so important at this time — all of the national security and affordability implications of what’s going on here.”
In terms of when relief is coming for specialty crop farmers, Quarles says in an election year with a short runway to bring attention to this issue, the pressure is on.
“There’s a lot of work that’s going on right now before the year is out, and when we get back right after New Year’s, I think it is going to be a dead sprint, with all of these policymakers on the Hill, to get this thing done,” he says.
