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Grape harvest: Too much of a good thing

With Carriage House no longer here, some local grape growers are searching for a market for their product, with limited success.

A report by the Erie Times-News for the Associated Press notes that after bumper concord crops in 2013 and 2014, the National Grape Cooperative, owner of Welch Foods Inc., is struggling with what to do with all of the crops brought to their North East facility. They certainly aren’t looking for more growers.

It costs growers around $250 for a ton of concord grapes. But the price on the open market this year is about $180 a ton.

Twice in 2014 and once this past May, Sens. Charles Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced the USDA was purchasing some of the surplus juice for domestic nutrition programs. Last year Schumer also talked about how he was lobbying to get tariffs on U.S. grape juice lifted in places like Israel and Japan.

Those ideas are helpful. But until tariffs are lifted, it’s going to be difficult for local farmers to sell their grapes.

There are not a lot of options unless Americans decide to buy grape juice and eat jelly.

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