Source: NCSU COOPERATIVE EXTENSION, 1/20/21


[Farmlaw Editor’s Note: The article below is not a legal article per se, it nonetheless provides information useful to specialty crop – particularly caneberry – producers in the decisions related to marketing risk management. Below is an excerpt from the article –Specialty Crops in 2020: COVID-19 and Other Challenges – published in the Winter 2021 NC State Economist and written by Dr. Daniel Tregeagle, Assistant Professor and specialist in specialty crop economics.]

Article excerpt begins…
The specialty crop sector has been consistently growing over the last decade. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented unique challenges to the industry that threaten its continued growth, while at the same time prompting a positive trend in consumer preferences for direct farm specialty crop purchases.

This article provides a snapshot of the specialty crop industry pre-pandemic specialty crop purchases and then summarizes several of the key issues challenges and changes that COVID-19 has brought. The information about the pandemic’s effects was gathered from the recent agricultural economics literature, as well as a survey of U.S. and Canadian raspberry and blackberry growers I conducted in Summer 2020.

For more of this story, click here.