The Fruit Growers News

Is better crop insurance on the horizon for apple and specialty crop growers? If the recent appointment of a specialty crop grower to a key board is any indication, the answer is yes.

In early March, Agriculture Secretary Ann Veneman announced the appointment of six new members to the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation’s (FCIC) Board of Directors.

The new members included four farmers - one of whom is a specialty crop producer. Chris Watt, a fruit grower and farm market owner from New York, was selected for a two-year term on the board.

“The new FCIC board reflects the diversity of U.S. agriculture,” said Veneman. “These individuals will provide valuable assistance in the administration of federal crop insurance and important risk management tools for farmers and ranchers.”

U.S. Apple Association (USApple) was happy to hear that a specialty grower had made the FCIC board, according to Jim Cranney, USApple vice president.

“Now that we have somebody from the industry who has experienced the day-to-day working of an apple farm, who understands the challenges and problems associated with crop insurance and how the policies work, I think it will go a long way to help us get what we need from future crop insurance plans,” said Cranney.

Watt hopes that his practical experience will lend itself to illuminating the crop insurance programs that traditionally have not met the needs of specialty growers. Whether the previous programs lacked an understanding of grades or secondary fruit markets, crop insurance for the specialty market needs to have more flexibility.

Watt and his wife, Karen, own and operate Watt Farms Country Market, in Albion, N.Y. The family-owned business was established in 1980 in the Western New York fruit belt. In 1989 they built a retail market and storage for over 60,000 bushels of apples. Today, they operate six orchards in the Albion area.

“Apple producer’s have had few crop insurance options,” said Watt. “For other specialty crops the few programs that have been tried have been modeled off of the commodity programs.”

Watt realizes there is a sense of urgency among many specialty growers.

“It’s not something that we can recreate from other programs. But it needs to happen quickly, because the risks are becoming much more difficult for growers to take,” he said.

Apple producers have traditionally had few crop insurance options. Last year an apple crop insurance pilot program was introduced in six states. According to Cranney, the pilot program was the result of groundwork laid by USApple several years ago. “We put together a task force that identified crop insurance as one of the tools we could use to help growers get a little bit of relief,” he said. The program continues this year in California, Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Washington.

For other specialty crops the few programs that have been tried have been modeled off of the commodity programs, and tested on a smaller scale.

How soon can growers expect new specialty crop insurance program?

“I look at the fact that this thing was started many years ago. President Clinton brought it into existence in his first term, and this thinking had started several years before - and you can see where we are at today,” Watt said. “We are still working through a political process that never speeds things along. I don’t see it fixing itself overnight. When we look at this crop insurance issue we have to keep in the back of our mind that this is just one segment of how we are going to solve our problem.”

The other problem is that prices received on all commodities have been in a steady decline in the last 10 years and, today, the prices are below the cost of production, Watt said.

Other new farmer/producer representatives named to the board include: John Askew, corn and soybean producer, Glenwood, Iowa (4-year term); Frank Bedford Jones, Jr., farmer-rancher, Lubbock, Texas (4-year term); and Timothy Kelleher, lawyer and self-employed rice producer; Yuba City, Calif. The insurance representative is Roger Swartz, vice president and general manager, American Farm Bureau Insurance Services Inc., Bloomington, Ill. (two years). The reinsurance/regulatory representative is Susan Penix Fitzsimmons, agricultural analyst, Insurance Corporation of Hannover, Los Angeles, Calif. (four years).

The FCIC board of directors is responsible for the management of the crop insurance program.