Farmers in Ga. say they are fighting for survival against cheap imports

CAMILLA, Ga. (WALB) – For the first time in history, America is facing a $32 billion agricultural trade deficit, according to the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Association.

Georgian farmers in specialty crops are particularly hard hit by imports from South America.

It’s a matter of national food security, and right now farmers in Georgia are dealing with unfair price imports from Central and South America, raising concerns from the White House if another pandemic occurs.

“If we become dependent on other countries for our food, our concern is that the next time we have a supply chain disruption, we could run out of that food,” said Chris Butts, a member of the Georgia Fruit and Vegetable Association .

Georgia’s main industry is agriculture, which feeds the entire country. But specialty crop growers in Georgia are currently struggling due to prices for imported specialty crops such as blueberries, cucumbers, peppers and asparagus.

U.S. Senator Jon Ossoff and U.S. Representative Sanford Bishop met with state agriculture leaders on Friday to highlight protections for Georgia farmers

“There is a real risk of destroying fruit and vegetable production in the United States if we do not level the playing field for American producers, which is why there is real urgency here,” Ossoff said.

In a joint effort by the House of Representatives and the Senate, Bisschop and Ossoff are working on a ‘Protecting our Produce Act’. It aims to increase resources and support for specialty crop growers in Georgia who face unfairly priced imports from Mexico and South American countries.

Ossoff says these imports are so cheap because they are grown with “cross-border slave labor” and without any environmental controls, such as regulations on the chemicals used in production.

The bill would establish a five-year pilot program to provide assistance to certain specialty crop producers.

“This will result in private payments on certain U.S. seasonal and perishable fruits and vegetables to producers to provide relief from unfairly priced seasonal imports,” Bishop said.

Farmers say they are suffering a huge loss after Hurricane Helene and with most of their specialty crops destroyed in the storm, the number of imported crops has increased.

“We compete with other countries that make $15 to $20 a day in labor and so their labor is a tenth of what ours is and a large part of our costs is labor and that’s not fair. This year we had a record number of blueberries coming into Georgia and during our biggest week we had 7 million pounds coming in from Mexico competing against us, so they have an advantage in terms of labor,” said Alex Cornelius, Southern blueberry grower. -Georgia.

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