Survey Says Fruit Growers Being Whipsawed By High Input Prices

(Editor’s note: Costs are on everyone’s mind. “Higher input prices” is by far the top answer to the following request in our State of the Fruit Industry survey: “Rank in order from 1 to 6 these current risks to profit (1 being the biggest concern, 6 being the least). Interestingly, while higher input prices is by far the top answer among the six choices, finishing fourth is increased overhead and processing costs. The second- and third-ranked issues, weather and labor, are covered on pages 16 and 18, respectively.)

Showing just how high input prices have grown, the topic beats out weather and labor for first among grower challenges in our annual State of the Industry Report. Labor has dominated the survey for the past decade. Weather has only become one of the top issues in the past few years.

High input prices have only emerged as a key concern in the past few years. Whether you’re talking pesticides or fertilizers, growers bemoan rising prices. Here is what our grower/survey takers had to say about high input prices:

• “The costs of everything we use have gone up tremendously. However, the price we get for our crops has not. Therefore, we aren’t making as much as we could if our overhead and processing fees were not so high.” (Georgia blueberry grower)
• “Higher costs for inputs, equipment, and labor are devastating to future farming in California, and we are no exception.” (California wine grape grower)
• “Cost of living, everything is getting harder to buy — from fertilizer, fuel, electric, and paying workers more money.” (Florida berry grower)
• “Carton costs have really jumped up and, of course, fuel.” (Idaho peach grower)
• “There is not room to increase prices for the consumer if we continue to have increased costs. It relates to profit.” (Michigan blueberry grower)
• “Higher costs for fertilizer, fuel, repair parts, labor, etc. Highest on the list should be regulations and imports.” (Florida orange grower)
• “Inputs were much higher as a result of government mandates in fuel and labor and resulting goods and services.” (Washington state blueberry grower)
• “My primary concerns are the rising costs of input prices and an unstable export market for my crop.” (Oregon hazelnut grower)
• “It’s hard to recoup input costs.” (New York state grape grower)
• “The cost of growing the fruit has increased a lot in the last five years, so we have to raise the prices we sell them at. Which puts them, at the store level, at a higher price, and then the customer may not pay the price needed, so sales slow down at the store level.” (California stone fruit grower)
• “It’s all about limiting costs as consumers seem to believe commodity prices are not changing.” (Massachusetts berry grower)
• “Everything has gone up except the price of blueberries.” (Florida blueberry grower)
• “High cost of growing apples and pears, coupled with a flat or very slight increase in commodity prices, will have many farmers getting out of the business.” (Oregon tree fruit grower)
• “Everything is just TOO expensive.” (California nut grower)