WASHINGTON, D.C.\u00a0\u2014 The Lake Erie grape belt is the largest grape-growing region in North America east of the Rocky Mountains and is home to an industry rooted in\u00a0nearly\u00a030,000\u00a0acres\u00a0of Concord grape vines.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For decades, growers in the Lake Erie grape belt have relied on selling their crops in bulk to processors. But that market could be withering on the vine.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In early March, beverage giant Refresco \u2014 a major buyer in the region \u2014 announced it would stop\u00a0purchasing\u00a0Concord and Niagara grapes effective immediately, leaving thousands of acres \u2014 and livelihoods \u2014 hanging in the balance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re\u00a0talking\u00a03,000 acres\u00a0of grapes that may not\u00a0get\u00a0taken care of. That\u2019s going to be an issue.\u00a0That is a huge issue,\u201d said Nick Mobilia, a member of the Erie County Farm Bureau and owner of Arrowhead Wine Cellars.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a statement,\u00a0Refresco said\u00a0the move stems from \u201csustained grape market challenges and supply imbalances that we do not expect will recover in the foreseeable future.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody will lose money in the next few years trying to figure out how to deal with this,\u201d\u00a0said Sam Valone,\u00a0a\u00a0Pennsylvania grape farmer\u00a0impacted\u00a0by Refresco\u2019s exit.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Now, federal lawmakers are trying to keep the industry afloat.\u00a0Some,\u00a0are\u00a0floating options\u00a0like having\u00a0the USDA\u00a0purchase\u00a0the grapes that currently have nowhere to go.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are going to call on the USDA to buy these grapes to make sure that they have a market,\u201d said Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y. \u201cI\u2019m going to use every power I have to get the USDA to buy those\u00a0grapes\u00a0so our farmers stay in business.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI have supported the USDA buying bulk Concord grape product for my entire time in Congress, and they have,\u201d said Rep. Nick Langworthy, R-N.Y.\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, Langworthy says the issue \u2014 and the industry as a whole \u2014 will need more than government intervention.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is not something that \u2014\u00a0long\u00a0range \u2014 will fix the issue. I mean, Concord grape juice\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0as high a priority in the American diet as it once was,\u201d said Langworthy. \u201cWe have to really look at the Concord industry as a whole, and they have to be\u00a0right-sized\u00a0to a point where we don\u2019t have massive surpluses, which just\u00a0drives down\u00a0their price each and every year,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
House Agriculture Committee\u00a0Chairman\u00a0Glenn Thompson, R-Pa., says he\u2019s looking at ways to pour more grape juice into federal nutrition programs.\u00a0But ultimately, Thompson\u00a0believes a\u00a0private sector\u00a0solution could be the best\u00a0option.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cA buyout program wouldn\u2019t give you the full value of\u00a0the grape\u00a0juice,\u201d said Thompson. \u201cI\u2019m\u00a0looking more\u00a0for a private sector type solution here,\u201d he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In the meantime, local growers are left to grapple with the consequences of\u00a0a\u00a0sudden,\u00a0bitter reality.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve\u00a0got a long road to go. And\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0going to be tough,\u201d said Mobilia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As lawmakers try to keep this legacy industry from drying up, many farmers who rely on Refresco to process\u00a0a large percentage\u00a0of their grapes,\u00a0fear the decision will leave them no choice but to shut down\u00a0their\u00a0multi-generation grape growing operations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI know. I know many of them.\u00a0I\u2019ve represented a number of them in the past,\u201d said Thompson.\u00a0\u201cI want them to be encouraged that I\u2019m trying to do my best as chairman of the House Agriculture Committee to find a new market.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Growers in Pennsylvania and New York say\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0pivotal that stakeholders in both states stay on the same page when addressing the issue.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u00a0can\u2019t\u00a0have New York\u00a0saying\u00a0something, Pennsylvania saying something. We need to speak with one voice,\u201d said Mobilia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Industry stakeholders say this problem goes beyond Pennsylvania and New York, with supply and pricing in states like Michigan affecting growers nationwide. Any solution, they say, must be national.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON, D.C.\u00a0\u2014 The Lake Erie grape belt is the largest grape-growing region in North America east of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":167942,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[2288,136,138,137,2287,2286,2289],"class_list":{"0":"post-167941","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-erie","8":"tag-bureau","9":"tag-erie","10":"tag-erie-headlines","11":"tag-erie-news","12":"tag-u-s-capitol","13":"tag-washington-d-c","14":"tag-washington-d-c-bureau"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167941","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=167941"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/167941\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/167942"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=167941"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=167941"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=167941"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}