CHAMBERSBURG (PA.) PUBLIC OPINION

December 29, 2005

Task force forms to aid orchardists
By JIM HOOK
Senior writer

Local fruit growers are looking for ways to thrive in a world of international markets, increased regulation and fewer workers willing to brave 20-degree temperatures to prune trees.

All the while, developers are offering them big bucks to grow houses on the family orchard.

"Fruit growing has been a tough economic proposition for last several years," said H. Lee Showalter, owner of Five Forks Fruit, near Waynesboro.

The Pennsylvania Fruit Task Force is the latest group offering help. The group of growers, processors, local and state officials, academic researchers and extension services met for the first time earlier this month and outlined areas needing attention at the state and federal levels.

"Basically they are pointed in the right, general areas of concern," Showalter said. "Whether they will be helpful remains to be seen. I'm always cynical about government initiatives."

Franklin County annually grows fruit valued at $7 million, mostly apples and peaches, and ranks third in Pennsylvania behind No. 1 Adams County (apples and peaches) and No. 2 Erie (grapes).

Local orchards, however, are becoming rarer. Franklin County has fewer than 4,000 acres of fruit trees, down 44% from 1987, according to the U.S. Census of Agriculture. The county's apple production has dropped by 41% since 1987 and peach production by 74%, according to National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Fruit growers in neighboring Adams County, one of the fastest growing counties in the state, face so much development pressure that Preservation Pennsylvania named the fruit belt to its 14th annual list of Pennsylvania's most endangered historic places.

Global squeeze

"Some of the growers are taking big hits and they're tired of it, and now they're seeing real estate pressure," said Mark Toigo, owner of orchards near Shippensburg and St. Thomas.

Veteran fruit growers, weary of hard work for little return, don't wish the

same life for their children, Toigo said.

When the mantra was "get out or get big," many growers got big, he said.

"When you're big, you lose big," Toigo said. "We're seeing cash returns in '05 that we were getting in the '70s and '80s."

The local industry is seeking equilibrium, he said.

"Is the writing on the wall for the apple industry?" he asked. "A lot is dependent on the global economy."

China's dominance of the international juice and processing markets has trickled down to Chambersburg, according to Dwight Mickey, orchard manager of Shatzer's Orchard in Hamilton Township.

"We're getting so much pressure from Washington State apples," he said.

The opportunity to export fresh Pennsylvania apples to Central America has narrowed because of competition from China and Chile, Showalter said.

Growers get the highest prices for fresh apples, but less than half the fresh price for apples used in canning and juices.

His apples finished poorly during the dry autumn, and nearly all of them had to be sold for processing.

"I think there needs to be subsidies in place to make sure growers can farm successfully," Toigo said.

Farm work

Growers are having trouble getting properly trained labor at the right times, according to Mickey, secretary of the Franklin County Fruit Growers.

"Harvest is the easiest part of the job," he said. "You have to be trained to prune (in late winter). It's very hard to do anymore."

"Labor was just barely adequate to harvest this past year," said Showalter, who packs apples for growers from New York to West Virginia.

Hispanic workers moving to the region several years ago have found jobs in construction and other industries, he said. The nation's borders have been tightened significantly, and again the region is feeling the trickle-down of a limited migrant farm labor force.

Friendly, costly chemicals

"Chemical tools are severely restricted," Showalter said. "We don't in all cases have a good alternative to control insects."

Growers are caught between skyrocketing costs of chemicals and their effectiveness, Mickey said.

"We are going to softer approaches," he said. "We are constantly under the gun to spray less, but you have to spray more."

A grower also takes time away from managing his business to contend with record keeping, inspections and worker protection associated with the use of pesticides, Mickey said.

Task force

The state Department of Agriculture is modeling the fruit task force after the state's two-year-old dairy task force.

Local growers welcome the attempt, but want results.

"We do not need another group to fall over each other and not get anything accomplished," Toigo said.

"If we are to make good decisions, we need good information," Agriculture Secretary Dennis Wolff said, "so that we can begin to devise strategies that break down barriers to new markets, increase production and improve profits."

The task force will seek comments from other state agencies, congress members and the tourism industry.

"Congress has recently debated immigration concerns and, in the next year, it will begin work on the 2007 Farm Bill," Wolff said. "As resources and efforts are coordinated more effectively, the industry will be positioned to capitalize on the growing demand for nutritious foods by an increasingly health-conscious society."

"There has to be optimism out there," Toigo said. "I'm putting in more trees."