(The Center Square) – Fruit growers impacted by a late-April freeze will soon be able to apply for assistance from the state government.
“Starting on Monday, the Department of Agriculture, under Secretary Redding's leadership, will begin to accept applications for growers in all 67 counties who were affected by freezing temperatures in April and expect to lose 30 percent at least of apples, pears, peaches, cherries, grapes, or berry crops that they planted this year,” Gov. Josh Shapiro announced on Thursday during a visit to Three Springs Fruit Farm in Adams County. “The application period will be open through September 21st.”
The Fruit Grower Freeze Disaster Assistance Recovery Grant Program is a $10 million fund created from the state’s latest spending plan.
“I know this is not going to cover all of the losses, but hopefully, combined with insurance and other means of support, we hope that this can make a difference,” Shapiro said. “We recognize that there is a long road ahead, and we're going to be there with you every step of the way.”
Ben Wenk, owner of Three Springs Fruit Farm, is a seventh-generation farmer and said his family’s operation goes back nearly 200 years in that region.
He noted that as apple season has begun, their harvest numbers are down significantly as a result of the freeze, saying that they are looking at “probably 25% of the full crop” is what they are hoping for.
“We have been able to maintain our staff here, but we have made the decision to reduce our H-2A guest worker contract from 15 to four,” Wenk said. “So, this is going to have a ripple effect across the whole of our community, including you know all the nascent industries that depend on that flux of workers, all the restaurants, the services that that those workers are expected to to provide here, is going to have a lot of long ranging effects across our our agricultural community.”
Although he described the fruit-growing community as a “resilient bunch,” he lauded the government's cooperation in securing this program's enactment in the latest budget.
Pennsylvania is the second largest state in terms of direct-to-consumer sales in the United States.
Sarah Zost, State Horticultural Association of PA President, is also a fourth-generation fruit grower in Adams County. She described the freeze in April as “unprecedented” and “devastating” to the production of all tree fruit crops.
Although Pennsylvania is currently at the peak of peach and apple harvest, she mentioned that many orchards “have little or no fruit.”
“The fruit grower freeze disaster assistance recovery grants are a lifeline for struggling farms while our season is still ongoing,” Zost said. “The $10 million in aid will be put to work immediately to cover payroll to bring in the rest of our apple harvest, to cover necessary expenses for tree care, and to keep our basic bills paid.”
In a visit to Pennsylvania in late May, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announced that she signed a disaster declaration for 17 counties impacted by damages and losses caused by below-freezing temperatures occurring between April 19 and April 21.
While the original announcement was for farmers in 17 Pennsylvania counties to receive federal assistance, Shapiro said that after communicating with Rollins last week, the USDA extended the disaster declaration to 58 of 67 counties.
According to the governor’s office, that means that designation from the USDA allows growers to “seek low-interest loans to restore operations and get faster damage assessments to finalize crop insurance claims.”
Shapiro, noting the bipartisan nature of this effort to assist these fruit growers, also took a moment to thank Rollins on Thursday.
“She and I have a very good working relationship, and obviously Secretary Redding does with her team as well,” Shapiro said. “She stepped up here.”
“This is how government is supposed to work, not just in a bipartisan way, but working together at the federal and state level to be able to meet the needs of the people who are impacted by tragedy and by challenge,” he added.
Pennsylvania Agriculture Secretary Russell Redding said that detailed instructions for those to apply for the grants will be published on Saturday’s edition of the Pennsylvania Bulletin and on the PDA website. These applications will be accepted by mail or email.
“You have to include a map that will designate where your production is of the eligible crops, and of course the total acreage that is being requested,” Redding said. “So we're anxious to get this moving, we will do everything we can to see that it goes through as quickly as possible to get the money and resources out… to cover some of those essentials to build that bridge to 2027.”
Redding, responding to a reporter's question, acknowledged that the $10 million would not be enough to cover all the losses experienced by those fruit growers.
“I think, as we've said all along, the losses that we saw in April are holding pretty true, right? It's about $150 to $200 million,” Redding said, referencing an estimate from the state’s Department of Agriculture in May, shortly after the freeze.
“The $10 million, though, is critical,” Redding continued. “That gets some of those fixed costs that you heard Sarah (Zost) talk about covered. It gives some of that out-of-pocket coverage for care of these trees and the stewardship of the trees.”
However, Redding noted that additional help could still come from other levels of government.
“As the governor noted, we're still in partnership and discussions with the USDA, and we feel very strongly that Congress and USDA can still help, as they've done with other disasters across the country,” Redding said. “We're going to keep making that request, and certainly hopeful that they will respond, particularly with the Senate Farm Bill still being an open discussion, that maybe there's a possibility there, as well.”
