Fruit Producers Speak Up About USDA Inspection Restrictions

Kathryn Grandy is the Chief Marketing Officer of Proprietary Variety Management, a tree fruit company based in Yakima. She spoke during the USDA Fruit and Vegetable Industry Advisory Committee's virtual meeting. She's worried about inspection restrictions which are causing a huge slowdown in shipping produce.

Currently, all plant material is being held to be fully certified virus-free. And those with latent viruses, such as the cherry virus A, CVA, which has no conditional release and shows no detrimental causes, are being held. And there's many varietals and cultivars that are being held with those type of latent viruses that have shown to do no harm.

Grandy is hoping the committee will develop recommendations and pass them along to the Ag Secretary. She's also pushing for changes in the H-2A farmworker program that center around labor cost, remarking, "The costs have exceeded all expectations in our state. Washington has one of the highest rates."

Grandy is one of many ag leaders and others who spoke to the USDA Fruit and Vegetable Industry Advisory Committee, a committee that only meets up to just two times a year.