California Walnut Harvest and Farm Bankruptcies Soaring
From the Ag Information Network, this is your Agribusiness Update.
**As California’s walnut harvest begins, market conditions remain strong following improvement last year after several years of low crop prices.
With inventory from last year’s crop nearly sold out, Robert
Verloop, executive director of the California Walnut Board and Commission, says the industry is well positioned to start shipping new harvest California walnuts immediately.
Verloop says favorable weather helped produce a large crop of “exceptional” quality that international markets should appreciate.
**Farm bankruptcies as of July have exceeded those for all of 2024.
U.S. News and World Report says low commodity prices now come with higher costs for inputs like fertilizer and equipment.
Climate change has led to deeper, longer droughts and more flooding.
Trade wars aren’t helping with tariffs on other countries’ exports to the U.S. making those products more expensive, and retaliations from some countries like China hitting farmers directly.
**In a press release, the National Association of Farmer Elected Committees reports that FSA offices "are critically understaffed," yet USDA officials have publicly denied those concerns.
NAFEC President, Jim Zumbrink says the word we are consistently hearing is that our county office staffs are critically understaffed.
FSA leaders have indicated staffing levels of county office employees are now under 6,000, compared to several thousand more, just a few years ago.
