ICYMI: Central Valley Farmer: New Markets Haven’t Made Up for China Trade War Losses
In Agriculture Committee testimony, Kingsburg Orchards VP says that despite expanding into new markets, trade war with China has given head start to competitors.
KEAVY: “The stone fruit industry needs certainty in our export markets. Reducing and eliminating trade barriers to expand market access is essential to the health and future of the industry.”
Yesterday, in the House Subcommittee on Livestock and Foreign Agriculture, Mr. Brian Keavy, Vice President, International Marketing at Kingsburg Orchards in Kingsburg, CA testified on the impact of the Market Facilitation Program and trade uncertainty caused by the current administration’s backwards foreign trade philosophy, which has devastated Central Valley farms, which rely on exports.
KEY MOMENTS:
Rep. Cox [0:20]: “When China announced the retaliatory tariffs [you could probably hear] high fives going on in Brazil and around the world because those markets were opening up to those competitors replacing the US as competitors. […] I hear consistently from farmers and ranchers in my district […] the other relationships that have been forged in the last couple years of this trade war, those relationships going to persist, you know, even after our tariffs are removed.”
Robb Ewoldt, Rafter E. Ranch, LLC (Davenport, IA) [1:10]: “I agree that there are relationships that are stronger now because we haven’t been in the market. We know that Argentina is getting a lot of Chinese money invested down there for their export facilities, for their infrastructure we know that that gave them two years to improve that infrastructure down there make them more efficient. […] We were very concerned that they were going to have better infrastructure and they were going to have better relationships with China than us.”
Brian Keavy, Kingsburg Orchards [2:50] “I have opened up to probably six new countries that we are going to be trying this year […] But it does not make up, does not make up what China has taken. So, we will do everything we can to expand [… but] we need certainty in every export market.”
Rep. Cox also emphasized the importance of the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, the first bipartisan ag-labor bill to come out of the US House in 30 years, legislation that will help Central Valley farms thrive with a legal workforce. This bill passed the House on December 10.
