By Staff Reporter
FREDONIA — With the Concord harvest nearly done, some Lake Erie grape growers who lost their buyer this spring still have fruit on the vine and no contract for it. A Fredonia processor opened a late door for them this week. The government help that has come so far has mostly gone around them.
AgriAmerica Fruit Products, which runs a processing plant at 200 Water St., said Thursday it is looking for grapes of all varieties from growers who still have 2026 fruit to sell before the crush ends in late October or early November, FingerLakes1.com reported. The company said it may help arrange mechanical harvesting, tote bins and trucking. It is offering to talk through processing and marketing options. It is not promising to buy at a set price.
“When a grower loses an anticipated market, particularly without sufficient warning, the consequences can be significant,” said Eric Huddy, a founding partner and managing member of AgriAmerica. “We want growers to know that AgriAmerica is interested in working with them to identify opportunities for their remaining 2026 crop and to help them make the most of the harvest season.”
State Sen. George Borrello, a Republican who represents Chautauqua County, has been promoting the program. “This has been an incredibly difficult year for many of our grape growers, who have worked hard and invested heavily in their crops only to find themselves without a buyer,” Mr. Borrello said, according to the Observer of Dunkirk. “With the harvest season rapidly coming to a close, time is running out for growers who still have grapes on the vine.”
Growers can call or text AgriAmerica’s grower relations line at 716-225-1156.
How the year went wrong
The trouble started in March. Refresco, the global beverage maker with a plant in Dunkirk, sent letters canceling its contracts with 126 growers farming about 2,600 acres in New York and Pennsylvania, the Post-Journal reported. Many growers had already invested in preparing their vineyards for the season.
The cancellation exposed a deeper problem. “There is an oversupply of grapes on the market, and the effects of that can be seen in situations like this one with Refresco,” Andrew Holden, business management specialist for the Lake Erie Regional Grape Program, told the paper.
Refresco later agreed to buy about 4.5 tons per acre, roughly half to two-thirds of a normal crop, Spectrum News reported in September. Robert Patterson, president of the Westfield Maid Cooperative, whose 67 member growers had sold to Refresco for 25 years, said the partial deal helped. “It’s going to be a good thing for our growers. It’s not going to solve the problems,” he said. Refresco did not respond to Spectrum’s request for comment.
The stakes are large for Chautauqua County. It is the leading grape-growing county in the state, and the Lake Erie grape belt supports about 2,000 jobs and upward of $300 million in economic impact, according to Cornell Cooperative Extension estimates cited by Sen. Chuck Schumer’s office.
Where the relief went
In August, Mr. Schumer and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture would spend $20 million on surplus Concord grape juice for school lunches and food banks, under a Depression-era law known as Section 32.
“This is a win for Upstate farmers, families, and New York’s economy,” Mr. Schumer said. Ms. Gillibrand said the purchase “delivers relief to our local farming families and protects a critical part of New York’s agricultural economy.”
Some growers say it missed the people who were hurt most. The program buys juice that processors already have, not grapes from farms that lost their contracts. “It didn’t help the Refresco farmers directly because it didn’t buy their crop,” Sam Valone, a grape farmer, told Erie News Now. He estimated that buying the stranded grapes directly “would’ve only been four or five million dollars.” Mr. Valone said he expects to sell farms he bought with mortgages.
Albany’s main aid program was not designed for this problem either. The state’s $30 million Agricultural Resiliency Against Tariffs Program offers one-time payments of $1,000 to $25,000 to offset losses farmers suffered in 2025 from federal tariffs. Grape growers could apply as specialty-crop producers. Applications closed Aug. 18.
“Eligible producers who complete an application will receive a direct payment ranging from $1,000 to $25,000 to help offset the impact of federal tariffs,” state Agriculture Commissioner Richard A. Ball said when he extended the deadline in August. Gov. Kathy Hochul said at the State Fair that the state had received “over 2,800 applications,” WRVO reported.
Two months later, no awards have been announced. The Lake Erie Regional Grape Program’s grant page, updated this month, says there are “still no updates” on the program and promises to post once funds are awarded or announced.
A separate federal program, the USDA’s Assistance for Specialty Crop Farmers, did pay out this summer, at $650 an acre for grapes and other top-tier crops. Processing grapes and apples were the top New York commodities by payment, American Agriculturist reported. That program’s deadline passed Aug. 7.
What could change the math
One-time payments do not change the underlying problem that growers and extension specialists describe: a market with too many Concord grapes and too few buyers.
Westfield Maid is trying to build its own outlet. The cooperative bought a former building on Route 20 in Westfield to make “Good n Grapey” juice pouches for schools, food banks and other institutions, a project of more than $2.6 million that includes $200,000 in loans from the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency, WJET reported in May. The co-op planned to buy about 5,600 tons from its members this year.
That kind of local processing, along with long-term contracts and direct government purchases of uncontracted fruit, are the fixes growers keep raising. Each depends on decisions by people outside the vineyards: processors setting their contract volumes, USDA choosing what to buy and Albany deciding when its tariff money goes out.
The Buffalo Chronicle is seeking comment from the state Department of Agriculture and Markets on when tariff-relief payments will be made, and from the Lake Erie Regional Grape Program on how many growers remain without a buyer. Any responses will be added to this story.
Featured photo: Vineyards in Westfield, Chautauqua County, in October. Photo by Nyttend via Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
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