Apple harvest begins, orchards struggle with costs

The New York Apple Association estimates that the state will produce 32.3 million bushels of apples for the 2022 crop year, which is on par with the three-year average. New York, second only to Washington, provides about 10 to 13 percent of the nation’s domestic apple supply.

Although consumers are becoming increasingly divorced from where their food comes from, the challenges for those who grow it have only heightened. What people might not realize is how much work goes on behind the scenes to cultivate the crop and that, unlike some other farmers, those who harvest apples have just one shot a year to get it right.

“There are a lot of steps and processes to get an apple from seedling to the supermarket shelf and there’s a lot of time, energy and effort that go into that,” Grout said.

The love for apple farming runs in his family’s blood – but unlike the owners that came before him, Grout has had to learn to wear more than just his farm’s signature red hat in order to survive.

“To be a good farmer, you have to pay attention and you have to wear many hats,” the 52-year-old said. “You have to be an agronomist, an entomologist, a salesperson and you have to deal with government regulation and food safety and all of these other things that weren’t as specifically important decades ago.”

Finding, adding value

He’s a packer. A seller. A marketer. And is involved in all other stages of production – on top of farming.

Surviving as just an agricultural farmer in today’s age, Grout said, is near impossible. He started the farm’s bakery, embracing agritourism as a part of their operation, and helps manage retail as well to build revenue.

The farm – which spans a few hundred acres – looks different than it did when Grout’s grandparents established it in the 1950s. There’s now a distillery on site, run by his brother, that produces homegrown hard cider and distilled spirits, as well as a smokehouse that uses apple wood to smoke local pork and poultry.

The added elements aren’t just for show; they reveal an agricultural landscape that requires innovation in exchange for profit because the farm’s commercial agriculture margins are generally thin, Grout said. Like many farms, Golden Harvest derives most of its earnings from its value-added products like its ciders and donuts, as well as the sales coming from its retail store, bakery, distillery and restaurant.

Hard cider and distilled spirits are an increasing market. There are over 150 cider destinations in the state, according to NY Apple Association President Cynthia Haskins.

Farmer Doug Grout said his farm’s commercial agriculture margins are generally thin. Like many farms, Golden Harvest derives most of its earnings from its value-added elements like its distillery and bakery. Lori Van Buren/Times Union.

It’s been a nonstop journey of evolving and adapting to find the best ways to maximize profits. Not all endeavors are successful. Exportation, for example, was an area Grout attempted to invest in some years ago – but the export of a perishable agricultural commodity with increasing worldwide competition turned out to be more trouble than it was worth.

While Washington specializes in apple exportation, most of New York’s supply stays closer to home, feeding the Eastern seaboard with only 3 to 5 percent of the state’s annual fresh market production heading outside U.S. borders.

“We’re always learning,” Grout said.

Labor and losses

Apple varieties are diverse in character. They can be red, green, yellow or striped. They can taste sweet, tart or mild. Their flesh can range from firm and crisp to grainy and thin.

But they all share one property that makes them highly difficult to farm: they bruise.

“The major challenge is when apples are ready to fall on the ground, you have to pick them,” Grout said. “If you have three days of rain and you can’t go out and pick and then suddenly you have a week of sunshine, you have to run.”

It makes apple farming more labor-intensive than some other industries, such as corn, that can thrive with mainly large machinery and less human labor. And it’s even more of a challenge in a state that enforces a mandatory day of rest for farm workers.

Legislation requiring New York farm workers to be given 24 consecutive hours of rest every calendar week (not counting time off due to weather or crop conditions) became effective in January 2020.

It’s an obstacle that puts all farms at a competitive disadvantage against states like Pennsylvania where the labor isn’t as restricted, Grout said. And it’s a cost that farmers throughout the state are saying they can’t afford.

But Grout said the burden falls most heavily on migrant workers sourced through the H-2A Visa Program, a federal temporary agricultural workers program that helps farmers fill employment gaps by hiring workers from other countries.

At regional apple farms, many of the migrant workers arrive from Jamaica and work only for the season, saving money to put toward costs like education for their children. The money they earn on the farm goes a long way – but each day they are unable to work is a paycheck lost.

Apples are one of the more labor-intensive crops due to production being mainly done by hand. Labor is currently the largest challenge facing many apple farmers due to increasing government regulation and a shortage of workers. Lori Van Buren/Times Union.

Matt Wells of Yes! Apples in Glenmont said labor is the biggest problem apple farmers are currently facing and that the H2-A program, while beneficial, can end up being significantly more expensive than local labor due to ancillary costs of providing housing and transportation. With a shortage of domestic workers, many farms have no other choice.

“Domestic workers just don’t want to pick apples or work on farms and, I’m generalizing, but it’s hard to get local labor to do this work,” he said

The New York Apple Association estimated labor accounts for between 60 to 70 percent of variable costs for apple growers, emphasizing that “the tree fruit industry cannot utilize automation in the same way as many other crops” because much of apple harvesting and packing are done by hand.

Many apple farmers run their own packing operations on-site, which requires even more capital. Wells said in the apple world, current predictions show a 10 to 15 percent increase in the cost of production.

Weather and its wrath

Coming off last year’s fruitful apple harvest, Sharon Soons had high expectations for this year’s yield at her family’s apple farm in Orange County. Then, one April night, an unusual winter chill spread throughout the orchard.