What Fresno County farmers face as California leads in farmer bankruptcy

FRESNO COUNTY, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) - A survey from the American Farm Bureau Federation shows that past year, California had the highest fig of farmers filing for bankruptcy in the country.

The Farm Bureau reports that successful 2024, 17 farmers successful California filed for Chapter 12 bankruptcy, that's a 55% summation from the erstwhile year.

The Fresno County Farm Bureau believes a batch much farmers were impacted.

"There is simply a batch of farmers that you're not going to spot the bankruptcy, but you're going to spot that they're either getting retired of the operations, selling disconnected assets, oregon doing thing to get done this time," Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobsen said.

Nationwide, 216 farmers filed for bankruptcy past year, that is besides up 55% from 2023. But inactive down 64% from 2019.

"That's not astonishing for me, though," Jacobsen said.

He says there are respective factors astatine play.

"We're looking astatine conditions, post-COVID person been beauteous unspeakable connected the workplace nationwide, a operation of debased commodity prices, combined with higher involvement rates, combined with the input costs that person went up substantially. Just similar for consumers, we connected the workplace person seen important increases."

The precocious prices that are being paid astatine the store aren't ever making their mode backmost to the farmers.

"Most of that was taken up successful the remainder of the worth chain, whether that was connected the hauling, whether that was the cooling, whether that was the supermarket itself," helium said.

Here successful the valley, Jacobsen says not adjacent ample farms were excessively large to fail.

"Particularly if you look astatine what happened successful 2024 present locally, you saw immoderate precise ample operations spell retired of concern that truly showed you that this isn't conscionable a nationalist thing," helium said.

For this year, Jacobsen predicts the fig of bankruptcies volition stabilize. But helium says it volition besides beryllium connected the adjacent 2 months arsenic California heads into its highest harvest season.