Federal relief again sought for Maine apple growers

PHOTO / RENEE CORDES Maine's 84 apple growers, many of which are small, family-run businesses, have been affected by ongoing international trade disruptions.

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By Staff

U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, and U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine 2nd District, are seeking economic assistance from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to offset some of the economic harm many small growers are facing due to ongoing trade disputes.

Collins and Golden wrote to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, urging him to administer agricultural aid payments, through USDA’s Agricultural Trade Promotion Program, to support small farms and orchards, according to a news release.

“Recent industry and international disruptions, however, have put these growers in an untenable situation that threatens their continued existence,” they wrote.

The Agricultural Trade Promotion program provided nearly $10 million to the Washington Apple Commission.

“While this funding as helpful to the apple exporters in the northwestern U.S., the payments have benefited large agri-businesses and weren’t helpful to the smaller grower in the Northeast,” the letter says. “As one Maine grower put it, the smaller operations like this are failing in part because the government is bailing out the largest operations, which are much better equpped to weather the instability in the current market.”

The vast majority of Maine apple farms are 15 acres or less, and the overall number of acres being used to grow apples in the state has declined steadily in recent years, from more than 3,330 in 2012 to roughly 2,670 in 2017

“While farmers tell us that they much prefer free, open trade to government aid, should the USDA consider administering an additional round of agricultural aid payments, we strongly urge your department to extend such support to small farms and orchards, not simply the most prominent players in the industry,” the letter says. “In the absence of additional aid payments, we urge you to develop other means to support small growers, such as expanding targeted grant programs.”

Collins and Golden sent a similar letter to Perdue and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer last September, requesting aid for Maine’s 84 apple producers.

“As larger apple producers in the western U.S. are no longer able to export as much product to markets such as China and India, those apples are sent to the eastern U.S., flooding the domestic market,” they wrote. “This is especially harmful for smaller growers like those in Maine who rely predominantly on the domestic market for sales.”