Mounting Regulations Weighing on Fruit and Vegetable Markets

DENVER, CO – Fruit, nut, and vegetable markets will continue to face rising production costs in 2020 due to mounting regulations, particularly as they relate to controls over groundwater in California. Regulations under the state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) are about to go into effect and could potentially cause acreage shifts between crops of varying water needs. Other government actions in 2020 could have a favorable impact on specialty crop growers. The Farm Workforce Modernization Act currently being debated in Congress is a hopeful sign for an improved regulatory environment for agricultural labor. If passed, it would help ease the tight labor supply plaguing agriculture. These are just a few factors that economists with CoBank’s Knowledge Exchange division highlight in a recent 2020 Outlook Report.