FALLS CHURCH, VA - A recent meeting of the minds took place as the U.S. Apple Association (USApple) met with the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, and the Acting Secretary of Labor, Julie Su. USApple’s President and Chief Executive Officer, Jim Bair, and Senior Vice President, Diane Kurrle, attended the meeting alongside other agriculture trade associations for a conversation centered around agricultural labor.

“Presenting our case directly to two members of President Biden’s Cabinet is a promising start,” said Bair. “The situation is long overdue for action, and fixing it in a deeply divided Congress is unlikely. We continue to ensure that apple growers' voices are heard at the highest levels of government and will push for any White House actions that can help, knowing it will be an uphill climb."

Apple growing, harvesting, and packing are highly labor intensive, a press release stated. The U.S. will produce 25 billion apples this year, and every single one must be hand-picked. Without an adequate domestic workforce, most apple growers have turned to the H-2A agricultural guestworker program. However, the cost of the H-2A program has become untenable for many.

With escalating H-2A costs, labor now makes up more than 60 percent of production costs for apple growers. In contrast, according to the latest USDA Ag Census, labor accounted for 12 percent of expenses for all U.S. farms.

To make matters more dire, over the last year, retail prices for apples have declined by 14 percent. The prices farmers receive are down by much more—farmgate Honeycrisp prices, for instance, are down by as much as 50 percent or more year-over-year, the release continued. This is particularly hard on growers as, in the year leading up to this season, the costs to grow apples were up 34 percent due to inflation and increasing labor costs.

The Adverse Effect Wage Rate (AEWR) continues to outpace the general marketplace with year-over-year rates increasing about 7 percent in most apple states. Growers from large to small and coast-to-coast report input costs that far exceed their returns.

We will certainly keep our eyes on the state of ag labor in the U.S. and continue to report.