00 per hour and have standardized a 40-hour work week for agriculture employees while the standard work week was 60 hours in 2018. California farmers are now facing significant cost increases in packing and production materials, fuel, logistics, labor, fertilizers, tractors, energy, and water.Īs Californians, we’ve raised wages $1 per hour per year for the last five years to a nation leading $15. Unprecedented increases in the cost to produce fresh produce as well as significant challenges in agricultural operations and logistics have forced countless farmers out of business and we ourselves are at a crossroads of facing decisions that we never thought would be considered. While the pandemic has helped to bring families back to their kitchens and home prepared meals and grocery retail has seen encouraging growth, the discouraging fact remains that farmers across the country are hurting like never before.Īs harsh inflationary forces continue to drive up the cost of everything around us, we feel it is imperative to identify the realities facing the California stone fruit industry. The events of the last two years have dramatically altered life as we know it, including the lives of California’s farmers. But that abundance of high-quality stone fruit grown in California is in a perilous situation. The bounty of the Golden State can be found on the shelves of grocery stores feeding families throughout the country and the world.
California’s central valley is known as the “fruit-basket of the world”.
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