Feds Aiding Growers Who Pull Trees

By Appeal-Democrat, Appeal-Democrat, Marysville, Calif.

Nov. 13–A U.S. Department of Agriculture peach-tree pull program is under way.

Peach production was down 9 percent this year and the USDA and California Canning Peach Association hope to further reduce harvests by offering growers money to pull their trees.

The department will pay $500 to $1,700 an acre until maxing out its total $7 million compensation budget.

Suppliers in Chile, Greece and South Africa, where labor costs are lower than the U.S., are pricing American growers out of the world market. A surplus of peaches inspired growers to shake immature fruit from their trees two years ago.

The point of the pull program is to help growers avoid future financial losses by removing orchards that could cost more to care for and harvest than growers are able to get for the fruit at market.

This year’s yield was the second lowest in the past 20 years, according to the California League of Food Processors. Orchards averaged a yield of 15.9 tons per acre on 30,199 bearing acres. This year’s yield is second lowest to 1995′s, when orchards yielded an average of 15.2 tons an acre.

Growers can register for the program until Nov. 30. Applications will be processed on a first-come, first-serve basis, according to the USDA.

CCPA field representatives are available to assist growers with the application process.

Applicants must provide the association with a copy of their property tax bill covering the orchard to be removed. They must also provide a copy of their irrigation tax bill or a plot map of the property.

Growers can get copies of plot maps from the county assessor.

Landowners who have arranged to sell or develop the land are not eligible for the program.

Abandoned orchards and dead trees do not qualify. To qualify for the program, trees should have been planted after 1987 and before 2003. Applicants must be willing to remove at least 1,000 trees or an entire orchard to be eligible for the program, according to program guidelines released this month.

Trees marked for removal must be easily definable by separations from other blocks of eligible trees.

Trees have to be removed by May 1.

Growers will have to refund the USDA’s payments plus interest if they replant cling peach before May 1, 2016.

For more information, call the California Canning Peach Association at 673-8526.

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