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Michigan Apple Committee tells House panel: labor, falling consumption and research cuts threaten growers
Summary
At a House Agriculture Committee hearing, Michigan Apple Committee representative Diane outlined the industry's scale, said labor is the top cost driver, reported a 31% fall in exports in 2024 and urged more state marketing and research support.
Diane, representing the Michigan Apple Committee, told the Michigan House Agriculture Committee that growers face acute pressures from labor costs, declining consumption and reduced research capacity.
Diane said Michigan produced "1,280,000,000 pounds of apples" on about "17,600,000 trees," making the state the nation's second-largest apple producer after Washington. She told committee members labor is the sector's biggest expense—"56% of total expenses for a grower are labor"—and identified pending federal changes to the AWER (the Department of Labor wage rate used for H‑2A workers) as a mixed development because a newly recognized housing-cost adjustment will lower the hourly wage component in the calculation.
Using a retail example, Diane said…
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