Cost of operation too high for growers. The Gioia Farms Story Pending Parma Zoning Board approval, part of the well-tended, manicured orchards of the Gioia Farms along Dunbar Road in Parma will be divided into 17 building lots and sold at auction. This is the first phase of a total dispersal of the 260 acre farm that produced 50,000 bushels of fresh fruit in an average season. “I can no longer make it pay,” says Al Gioia, owner for 24 years. In June 2000, the Gioias decided to quit the fresh-fruit business and suspend all related operations as of January 1, 2001. Two factors effectively made the business unprofitable: First, the competition of Washington State apples where annual apple production is 125 to 130 million bushels per year compared with New York state’s production of 26 million bushels; and second, the impact of Chinese apples mainly used to make juice. This may presage an area trend as more and more growers face a similar fate. Grower and packer James Nicholson of Red Jacket Farms states in a New York apple growers periodical, “Ten percent of our growers will quit this year and another ten percent next year.” Gioia hopes to rent or sell other sections of the farm. Two houses and out buildings on five acres of land will stay with the family. The 12-room house sits on a promontory fronting on Curtis Road and described as the highest elevation north of Route 104 between Niagara Falls and Watertown. It was purchased in 1928 by Al’s father, Alfonso Gioia, as a summer home. Over time, land was added and the farm in turn was a dairy farm with 100 head of cattle and later a source of fresh fruit production. Al’s father, Alfonso, traveled by ship from Italy alone with $1.69 in his pocket in 1895. He started a pasta business in Fredonia, NY in 1915 and moved to Rochester in 1918 with a wife, four sons, and two daughters. The elder Gioia died in 1950. Al Jr. bought the farm from the estate in 1978. Collateral effects of the dispersal include the displacement of the Jamaican crew that Gioia describes as “quality pickers.” Rick Furnal, of the Hilton Big M, says, “We will miss them. They were excellent customers.” In 1965, Al Gioia purchased the Hilton Milling and Warehouse Co. and Cold Storage. “I was putting in 70-80 hours a week, mostly on-the-job training,” he recalls. He sold out in 1975 and devoted 100 percent of his time to the fruit business. His oldest son, Edward, graduated from Hilton Central School in 1971 and worked at the Hilton Milling and Warehouse operation until 1972, when he decided that he preferred farming to inside work. He has managed his father’s Parma fruit farm ever since. In 1985, the younger Gioia took out a low-interest FHA loan and purchased a 235 acre farm in Hamlin with a house, a barn and a pole barn. His apple production reached 100,000 bushels in 1992. Then in 1993, a disastrous yield of only 20,000 bushels contributed to a series of ups and downs leading to a decision to sell his farm in November 2000. He continued as manager of the senior Gioia’s farm on Curtis Road in Parma and is now involved with preparation for the coming auction. He has busied himself in organizing and cleaning up assorted farming equipment (tractors, sprayers, mowers, etc.) to be sold in May. Ed Gioia will go to work on a job that allows him to continue working outside. John Burch and brother, Jim, own a 250 acre fruit farm near Gioia on North Avenue and Curtis Road in Parma. John Burch echoes the Gioias’ concerns about the future of apple farming in New York state. He prevails by working at a full-time job with the Village of Hilton while son, Ben, brother, Jim, and wife, Virginia, manage the day-in, day-out farm operations. Snow plowing in winter also supplements their income. Over a four-year period he has seen wholesale prices for fresh fruit and juice go down while retail and supermarket prices go up. Note: Recent reports indicate the release of $135 million in federal disaster assistance for apple growers has now been postponed until at least May. Al Gioia’s comment: “Too little, too late! If it had been available it would not have changed our decision of June 2000.” John Burch’s comment, “Repeated promises, no action. We applied early on. Don’t know when or if to plan on receiving it.” More on the auction will be included in a future issue of Suburban News and Hamlin-Clarkson Herald. |
