Cling Peach Uncertainty and FSA Offices Reopen
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with your Agribusiness Update.
**California cling peach growers face an uncertain future after long-term contracts worth more than a half-billion dollars were voided by Del Monte Foods, which filed for bankruptcy in July.
Del Monte’s bankruptcy rejected its contracts with members of the California Canning Peach Association, about 70% of the state’s cling peach growers.
That leaves dozens of growers without a future buyer for their fruit, exposing some to steep losses.
##With the 2025 hurricane season nearly complete, it appears the East Coast, and especially the Southeast, escaped the impact of a landfalling hurricane for the first time in a decade.
Alex DaSilva, Lead Hurricane Expert with AccuWeather, says Chantal made landfall as a tropical storm and Hurricane Erin brought rain in August without making landfall.
The last year a hurricane did NOT make direct landfall to the U.S. was 2015.
**In a move aimed at easing frustration among producers, the USDA reopened approximately 2,100 Farm Service Agency county offices.
Each reopened office is staffed with two employees, open five days a week, to provide limited but essential services like disaster aid, crop-insurance sign-up, farm loans and safety-net program assistance.
Ag Secretary Brooke Rollins emphasized reopening these offices is a critical step toward delivering on earlier commitments to farmers, including billions in disaster relief.
**USDA is launching a major disaster-relief effort under its Supplemental Disaster Relief Program, deploying roughly $21 Billion in aid to farmers affected by adverse weather in 2023 and 24.
This funding addresses a variety of losses.
Stage 1 prioritizes producers with previously indemnified losses through crop insurance, streamlining their application process.
A Stage 2 rollout is expected to cover shallower or uninsured losses, broadening access to those who didn’t receive full compensation previously.
