What used to be a complementary relationship between domestic fruit and vegetable harvests and foreign imports has turned into a direct head-to-head battle for shelf space, says Chris Butts, executive vice president of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association. And as imports increasingly overlap with the Southeast’s traditional marketing windows — often priced at or below local production costs — regional growers are being pushed to a dangerous tipping point.
“Over the years, we have seen an increase in imports of fruits and vegetables from Mexico and South and Central American countries,” Butts says. “They used to come in on the shoulders of our season, so when we didn’t have fresh produce to bring to market, they could bring it in, and we could have produce for extended periods of time. But over the years, those imports have increased, and now they’re coming in increasingly on top of — or in direct competition with — our traditional marketing windows, and when they do, they’re coming in often at or below our cost of production.”
Butts says the lower price point of imports is largely due to the difference in labor costs between the U.S. and those countries.
“Unfortunately, we’re at the intersection of trade and labor policies that are not favorable to us, as we’ve seen the labor crisis and the wage crisis continue,” he says. “That was pretty detrimental, but it was happening at the same time as the imports came in, so it’s kind of a double whammy, and really the only response a grower in Georgia has is to grow fewer acres, bring in fewer workers, and then that production is lost to [another country].
Butts continues: “The result is we’re driving more and more food production for fruits and vegetables out of the Southeast to foreign countries. We don’t feel that’s good for our food security or our national security.”
The Cost of Crop Losses
Among the crops hit hardest by competition from imports are blueberries, cucumbers, bell peppers, squash, watermelon, strawberries and asparagus.
“The saddest thing is when you see a field of perfectly good squash or blueberries, or any of these commodities that’s ready to be picked, but the price has dropped so low that the farmer just turns and walks away from it,” he says.
Butts says he’s seen crops abandoned firsthand and repeatedly.
“Just down the road, we’re letting 30 acres of zucchini rot because the price has dropped so low that it’s not worth picking,” he says. “I see that every season when prices drop to the point where they stop harvesting. It gets to the point where the box costs as much as much as you’re getting for it.
“That’s not sustainable,” he says. “I think that’s tragic, if not a borderline dereliction of our duties, as we try to keep our country fed.”
The solution? Butts says the United States Trade Representative must level the playing field so domestic specialty crop growers can compete, otherwise prepare to see more production move outside of the U.S.
“Fruit and vegetable production is more intensive than some other crops, and takes more infrastructure, more investments,” he says. “We’re afraid that once production goes [out of the country]; it’s not coming back.
“Our ultimate fear looks like a COVID,” he continues. “There were shortages in every section of the grocery stores except the produce section. That’s because American farmers kept the shelves filled. If we’re relying on another country for all our fruits and vegetables in the future, and we have another supply chain interruption, we’re going to go hungry.”
Showtime for USMCA Review
It’s a powerful message the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association and other grower organizations are putting front and center with the USTR’s office ahead of the July 1 six-year review of USMCA.
On June 29, U.S. Sen. Ted Budd (R-N.C.) led a coalition of bipartisan senators in sending a letter to USTR Jamieson Greer, calling for measures to restore a more competitive trade balance for U.S. specialty crops with Mexico and advocating for the alleviation of unsustainable pressure on U.S. specialty crop producers caused by an increasing volume of imports entering the U.S. market during peak season.
“Without measures to restore competitive balance, specialty crop production will increasingly move to foreign countries,” Budd says in the letter. “We urge you to evaluate trade actions that can safeguard U.S. growers from unfair pressures from Mexico. This work is essential to maintaining U.S. competitiveness in the specialty crop sector and ensuring Americans continue to have access to high-quality, domestically grown food, which is fundamental to our national security.”
Senators from Georgia, Florida, South Carolina and Mississippi joined in co-signing the letter.
In May, Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) led a bipartisan group of 79 members of the U.S. House of Representatives in sending a letter to Greer emphasizing the importance of fair-trade measures for the U.S. specialty crop industry.
“The USMCA review process gives us an opportunity to reaffirm and recommit our support for domestic agriculture and the American farmer by forcing Mexico to play by the same rules if they want to import to the United States,” Scott says in the letter, urging the administration to address American producers’ “competitive disadvantage” and calling for improved trade measures as part of the USMCA review process.
More than 40 grower associations from across the country, including Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Growers Association, endorsed the letter.
As Scott is from Tifton, Ga., the heart of the state’s vegetable production, he understands the challenges the region’s specialty crop growers face, Butts says. However, the issue is not just a Southeast specialty crop grower issue, he says, noting the letter was signed by 79 members of congress.
“That’s pretty substantial,” he says. “A quarter of the congressional offices agreeing to anything is pretty big.”
Produce Perspectives at Odds
The Produce Coalition for USMCA, which has warned changes to USMCA could spike grocery prices, issued a letter to President Donald Trump on June 29, urging for the renewal of the agreement with “targeted improvements.”
“The USMCA is foundational to American food and agriculture’s success, providing expanded cross-border rail traffic, long-term policy certainty and greater supply chain predictability for American producers — and this agreement delivers for American consumers, too,” the coalition’s letter says, adding that one benefit of USMCA has been more affordable food for Americans.
Butts says the debate surrounding USMCA should not be framed as a choice between affordable produce and American agriculture.
“That is a false choice,” he says. “The real question is whether the United States is willing to maintain a strong domestic fruit and vegetable industry or continue down a path that increasingly shifts production beyond our borders.
“I think what we have when it all boils down, is the needs of Georgia or Southeastern fruit and vegetable farmers are different from a company that is sourcing product internationally and has that produce from lots of different countries during lots of different seasons,” he continues. “Both are legitimate and both have needs and requirements in order to fulfill their part of the market, but unfortunately when we try to combine those needs, it doesn’t work very well.”
Butts says if the country can start by acknowledging these differing needs, then it can determine how to support the nation’s fruit and vegetable producers in a way that encourages sustainable and reliable domestic food production.
“We’re not against imports,” he says. “We realize they’re needed to meet the demands that consumers have today. We realize that imports will have to be there to supplement [domestic supply]. But when they come in — always so cheap — it just sets our growers up for failure here in the U.S.”
The Ask Heading Into USMCA Review
What revisions to USMCA would create a more level playing field between domestic and foreign produce supplies?
“I think we’ve got to ask USTR to look at the production we have here in the United States — look at the demand for those particular commodities — and then limit the amount of product that can come in and sustain that market during our traditional marketing windows,” Butts says. “Our traditional marketing window for zucchini is mid-April to mid-June. We would like to see imports of that commodity limited during that time.”
Budd is urging Greer to consider the cost of growing specialty crops in the U.S.
His letter notes that fresh fruit and vegetable imports from Mexico have increased by more than 550% since 2001, driven by “fundamental cost and regulatory advantages,” such as Mexico’s significantly lower labor and production expenses.
Budd says agricultural wages in Mexico are about one-tenth of those in the U.S., where growers depend heavily on the higher-cost H-2A program for seasonal labor.
“Because labor accounts for roughly half of total production and harvest expenses in this industry, these disparities create a substantial competitive gap,” he says.
For Butts, who on behalf of Georgia fruit and vegetable growers, has been vocal about these challenges for some time, USMCA is an opportunity to keep the concerns of Southeastern specialty crop growers at the forefront.
“We think that USTR understands the issue, so now our job is to provide data and information about the problem,” he says. “We’re trying to keep this out front and center and call attention to the issue leading up to these negotiations, but ultimately our job is to ask USTR to help level that playing field.”
