“Another tight year…”

“Pivotal juncture…”

“A significant challenge…”

These are some of the phrases used by agriculture industry leaders recently when discussing the state of Washington farming.

This is not to say there weren’t bright spots in the past year. In 2024, wheat yields were up as growers come back from a record low crop in 2021. Wine grape producers saw the average price per ton of grapes climb up to $1,621, with merlot fetching the highest prices at $2,595 per ton. Apples and fresh sweet cherries saw double digit percentage increases in their exports.

“Washington’s agriculture remains one of the most diverse and productive sectors in the nation – anchoring our economy, sustaining rural livelihoods and supplying food to communities both locally and globally,” wrote Derek Sandison, director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture, for this edition of Focus.

Yet the cost of production, from inputs such as fertilizer to labor, continues to increase. Weather and climate dealt blows to various industries across the state. Oversupply is affecting most commodities, driving down prices, experts and farmers report.

Challenges remain as the growing season gets underway, and government regulations and volatile trade environments also play a role.

“I think a lot of them feel this is more on top of challenges they already have,” said Rianne Ham, manager of state Department of Agriculture’s international marketing program, for this edition of Focus. “It’s just becoming very difficult to farm in the state of Washington already.” 

A diverse industry

Agriculture is a multibillion-dollar industry in Washington state, valued at $14 billion in 2023, the most recent year data is available from the National Agriculture Statistics Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).

The state is the leading nationwide producer of seven different commodities, many grown in the Mid-Columbia, such as apples, sweet cherries, pears and hops. It ranks second for regional staples such as potatoes, winter wheat and grapes.

Food grown or processed in the state is shipped across the globe, generating $7.6 billion in 2024, up 1.5% over the previous year, according to state agriculture officials. Canada and Mexico are among Washington’s top three export partners, with other countries around the Pacific Rim rounding out the top 10. Billions of dollars’ worth of agricultural products from across the country are shipped internationally via ports in the state.

Overall, the ag industry employs more than 160,000 people statewide, whether they are planting and harvesting or processing everything from potatoes to peppermint oil.

Challenges ahead

Many of the perennial challenges facing growers and ranchers become bigger each year.

Even as average wages have grown annually for years, growers continue to struggle to find workers to harvest their crops. More than 35,000 temporary foreign workers authorized by the federal H-2A program worked in Washington state in 2024, up slightly compared to the year prior, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation. Along with demonstrating a labor shortage, employers must pay those workers nearly $20 per hour, plus housing, transportation and other requirements as part of the program.

More recently, many farmers who received federal grants worth a combined $50 million to help mitigate their costs to bring in foreign workers are reporting they haven’t received their payouts since January.

In a letter to the USDA, the National Council of Agricultural Employers said agricultural employers “stopped receiving reimbursements in January or failed to receive any reimbursement … recipients report being ‘out-of-pocket for hundreds of thousands of dollars,’ adding that some are reportedly borrowing money and on the edge of bankruptcy.”

Weather events such as an extreme frost early in 2024 harmed several crops, notably killing off primary and secondary bud growth on vines in most state vineyards. Much of the state was also in drought, limiting irrigation, and that continues to be the case for the 2025 growing season.

Water conditions are particularly stark in the Yakima Valley and Mid-Columbia.  Reservoirs serving the Yakima Valley were at 59% of their capacity in early April, the fifth lowest level in more than 50 years, according to the Washington Department of Ecology. At the same time, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation anticipated that irrigators with pro-ratable water rights could receive just over half of their normal water supply this irrigation season. 

State ag officials have said a drought that results in 70% of normal water supply would affect over 6,000 jobs and create $161 million to $424 million in direct losses. 

By mid-May, water and ag experts said they didn’t expect any improvement, with the drought potentially spreading into the northern Cascades.

“Precipitation has been near normal, but that is largely due to a wet fall. Precipitation since January has been 78% statewide,” Ecology said in a statement. “Some areas, including the seven counties currently under a drought advisory, had less than 75% of normal precipitation since January.”

And where a decade ago farmers in crops such as hops and potatoes couldn’t grow enough to meet demand, harvested acreage has shrunk for the past several years. Even then, crops such as wheat are selling up to $2 per bushel below the cost of production.

“In general, ag is just in the toilet all the way around. Every crop seems to be overproduced somehow,” Grant Morris, a potato grower with Pasco’s Schneider Farms, recently told the Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business for this Focus edition. “The grower’s pretty far removed a lot of times from the consumer on our products, unfortunately, so there’s a lot of middlemen there and we don’t have a clear vision on how all that works.”

The complexity of tariffs

The Trump administration’s tariffs have created a lot of uncertainty for the agriculture industry, with growers and their advocates holding mixed views.

Some, such as those in the potato or blueberry industries, see the tariffs as potentially limiting the damage from foreign competitors. Others worry the tariffs will dry up overseas markets that have been cultivated for years as other countries enforce retaliatory tariffs on U.S. commodities.

But the impacts of tariffs go beyond who buys Washington-grown food. It affects logistics networks, meaning it will take weeks for regular trade to reach earlier rates once trade relationships normalize, Ham said. Meanwhile, farmers will pay more for things such as fertilizer and machinery.

“Many of the inputs used to grow wheat and barley are sourced from overseas, and any cost increase will be passed through to the farmer, who does not have the ability to pass cost increases on,” Michelle Hennings, executive director of the Washington Association of Wheat Growers, said in this edition of Focus.

Looking for silver linings

Despite the hurdles and uncertainty, Ham said she is hearing from trade representatives on the ground in other countries that while they may not be buying Washington commodities at the moment, they plan to once the tariff situation improves.

Even as hops growers continue to reduce their acreage, they see a future when supply no longer overwhelms demand.

“We’re getting closer. We’re coming back into balance,” Maggie Elliott, science and communications director for the Hop Growers of Washington, said in this edition of Focus.

And state ag leaders such as Sandison noted that it’s through continued partnership and problem-solving that producers have found their way through challenges in the past.

“The pressures facing our producers are complex, but so are the strengths and innovations that define this industry,” Sandison wrote in his Focus column. “Washington farmers and ranchers have repeatedly shown their ability to adapt, lead, and thrive – even in the face of uncertainty.”