National Potato Council CEO Kam Quarles says current bridge payments are not enough to offset the financial pressure specialty crop growers are facing from high input costs and weaker market prices. “I think USDA is doing as much as they possibly can with the resources they have available to them,” Quarles said. “The problem is those resources just flat out aren’t enough. They’ve said that perhaps specialty crops might get about $1 billion of a much larger package, but the specialty crop subsector is looking at requiring about $5 billion to get through this crisis here.” Quarles says industry groups are working closely with Congress and the administration to push for additional assistance, potentially tied to must-pass legislation later this month. “We partnered with American Farm Bureau Federation and a number of the other major ag groups to make the case that American agriculture in the short term really needs this economic relief package,” Quarles said. “If your farm shuts down, if you go bankrupt before you can get to what may be very beneficial new policies, it just doesn’t really matter, and that’s why this economic relief plan is so important to carry folks to those better days.”
