Jul 8, 2025SCFBA applauds rapid specialty crop assistance payments
The rapid delivery of a second round of federal assistance for specialty crop producers, coupled with millions of dollars in additional funding contained in the massive budget bill signed into law July 4, has industry stakeholders celebrating a monumental week for U.S. agriculture.
“That reconciliation bill was used as a vehicle for farm bill enhancement,” Kam Quarles, CEO of the National Potato Council (NPC) and co-chair of the Specialty Crop Farm Bill Alliance (SCFBA), told Spudman on July 8. “When you couple the farm bill enhancements with the MASC payments, that was a great deal of federal government support for fruit and vegetable producers across the U.S. in the last week.”
The USDA’s Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops program is providing a total of $2.65 billion to help specialty crop growers with rising input costs and aid in the expansion of domestic markets. The SCFBA and other industry groups petitioned USDA officials to expedite the release of a second round of MASC payments totaling $1.3 billion originally announced April 30.
“They announced that these payments were going to be released 10 days ago, and my understanding is, within 48 working hours, growers were receiving checks in their bank accounts for these disaster relief payments,” Quarles said. “That is light speed for the federal government.”
The SCFBA applauded the quick response in a July 1 letter to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins.
“On behalf of the more than 70 organizations representing specialty crop growers across the country that recently petitioned USDA to expedite a second round of payments under the Marketing Assistance for Specialty Crops (MASC) program, we thank you and President Trump for following through on your commitment to our growers,” the letter read. “The additional $1.3 billion in funding, which was previously announced on April 30, 2025, will provide a vital lifeline to the family farms that produce the safe, nutritious foods that more Americans should be consuming, as well as cultivate the trees, flowers and plants that play a vital role in the nation’s health and wellbeing.
“We cannot overstate the urgency of the situation for the family farms that produce specialty crops in all 50 states. These growers confront a host of unprecedented challenges that have similarly plagued our program crop colleagues.”
Fight for funding
Program, or commodity, crops, include field crops such as wheat, corn, rice, soybeans and cotton and are grown on a large scale and often traded on commodity markets or sold to processors for export. Specialty crops, defined as fruits and vegetables, tree nuts, dried fruits, horticulture, and nursery crops, are often sold fresh and consumed directly.
Specialty crops contribute more to local food economies and face higher marketing costs because of factors including perishability, specialized handling and transport equipment necessary for temperature and humidity control, packaging to prevent damage and higher labor costs.
SCFBA’s role in securing the MASC funding dates back to last fall. After a series of storms, including hurricanes Debby and Helene, caused widespread crop damage, Congress began developing disaster relief, “but it was just for the program crops,” Quarles said. “The reason for that was to address a bunch of economic challenges that were confronting producers in those crops. Specialty crops were obviously operating in the same environment, and they had just as big needs as the program crops did. However, Congress just flat-out didn’t have the funds to support the specialty crops.
“The industry spoke with both Capitol Hill as well as USDA and found an alternative through USDA’s existing authority. It was not money that had to be appropriated by Congress. It came straight from USDA.”
In November 2024, $2 billion in Commodity Credit Corporation funds was authorized for the MASC program. The USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) delivered just under $900 million in first-round payments to eligible producers.
In January 2025, in response to stakeholder feedback and program demand, funding for MASC was increased to $2.65 billion.
“These are very reasonable amounts of money intended, on a temporary basis, to carry these family farms through some challenging times,” Quarles said. “They are in no way a replacement for the size of the operations that these family farms comprise. There’s a lot of cost to running a competitive fruit and vegetable operation in the United States today. It’s great that USDA can provide this support, but it’s not a replacement.
“These are a lot of supply chain challenges that go back five years to COVID and the market trying to correct itself, and then overcorrecting in unhelpful ways. It’s just created a lot of chaos.”
The SCFBA, co-chaired by Cathy Burns, International Fresh Produce Association CEO, Mike Joyner, president of the Florida Fruit & Vegetable Association, and Dave Puglia, president and CEO of Western Growers, was instrumental in making sure specialty crops were part of efforts to address those challenges.
According to the alliance, specialty crops account for $64.7 billion in farm gate value and 30% of farm cash receipts for crops in the U.S. Potatoes alone account for $10 billion in farm gate value, Quarles said.
Quarles said the SCFBA has already begun receiving calls from growers grateful to have received the second round of payments. He advised producers who missed the deadline to apply for MASC funding to check with their local FSA office for assistance eligibility and sign-up requirements.
“A lot of credit goes to the folks on Capitol Hill who were pushing the (USDA) to come up with this creative solution back in the December timeframe,” Quarles said. “A lot of credit goes to Secretary Rollins for fighting the good fight and making sure that this money got out this week.
“A lot of people wanted to lean into this on behalf of the fruit and vegetable industry, and it’s good to see it all worked.”
Positive developments for potatoes
The budget bill signed into law July 4 contained several provisions related to specialty crops, including a measure increasing annual mandatory funding from $85 million to $100 million for the Specialty Crop Block Grant Program and an increase from $80 million to $175 million for the Specialty Crop Research Initiative.
“We have never had this level of support from the federal government for specialty crops in the form of these really valuable farm bill programs that go for ag research and foreign market promotion and pest and disease eradication,” Quarles said. “Those were really important actions that Congress took last week.
“The chairmen of the House and Senate agricultural committees played the best hand they could. Given the cards that they were dealt, they did a great job in utilizing that reconciliation bill to deliver a lot of value for specialty crop farms.”
Quarles is also optimistic that new action in Donald Trump’s trade machinations could spark movement in fully opening the Japanese market to fresh potato exports. On July 7, Trump told 14 nations, including Japan, that they may face higher tariffs beginning Aug. 1.
“I think that’s going to compel the Japanese and the U.S. government to do a lot of talking over the next month to try to get to some type of negotiated settlement between the two countries,” Quarles said. “We want to make sure that fresh potato access is part of that negotiated settlement. It’s a long time coming. It should not have drug out this long and it’s a very easy one to deliver, with a lot of benefits for both Japanese consumers as well as Japanese farmers and U.S. farmers.”
— By Melinda Waldrop, Managing Editor
