2025 Specialty Crop Bridge Payments Finalized Daniel Munch Economist

By Daniel Munch

Key Takeaways

• USDA has finalized the Assistance for Specialty Crop Farmers (ASCF) Program, making $1.625 billion in one-time payments available to producers of eligible fruits, vegetables and tree nuts based on 2025 planted and reported acreage. Applications open June 1, 2026, and close August 7.
• ASCF payments are structured as flat per-acre rates across four tiers, ranging from $25 to $650 per acre, based on average national revenue per acre for each crop.
• The ASCF Program covers eligible fruits, vegetables and tree nuts as defined under the USDA Specialty Crop definition. Floriculture, nursery crops, herbs, hops and other horticultural commodities are not included.

• Controlled environment agriculture, with limited exceptions for mushrooms, is excluded from eligible acreage.

• The $1.625 billion available under ASCF reflects a $625 million increase over the $1 billion originally announced.

USDA has finalized details for the Assistance for Specialty Crop Farmers (ASCF) Program, establishing approximately $1.625 billion in economic assistance for producers of eligible fruits, vegetables and tree nuts. The program provides one-time bridge payments intended to help offset elevated production expenses and market challenges experienced during the 2025 crop year.

The announcement closes a question left unresolved when USDA unveiled the broader Farmer Bridge Assistance (FBA) Program earlier this year. At the time, $11 billion was immediately directed to producers of covered commodities, while USDA indicated an additional $1 billion would be reserved for specialty crop and sugar producers pending further analysis.

This assistance is much needed as specialty crop farmers continue to navigate weak returns, elevated labor expenses, high borrowing costs and increasing import competition. The final rule provides that clarity, but also highlights a broader challenge: specialty crop agriculture remains significantly harder to evaluate through traditional economic safety-net frameworks than most row crop sectors.

How ASCF Payments Work

ASCF payments are calculated by multiplying a producer's eligible planted acres of each specialty crop, as reported to FSA by April 24, 2026, by the per-acre payment rate assigned to that crop's tier. USDA established four payment groups based on average annual revenue per acre, using 2024 National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) yield data and NASS or Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS) price data as primary sources.

Tier 1, at $650 per acre, covers the highest-revenue specialty crops (those averaging more than $10,000 per acre annually) including strawberries, lettuce, fresh grapes, highbush blueberries and sweet cherries. Tier 2, at $225 per acre, covers crops averaging between $2,300 and $10,000 per acre, a broad middle group that includes apples, almonds, potatoes, tomatoes and wine grapes. Tier 3, at $65 per acre, applies to a small group of relatively lower-revenue crops including pecans, hazelnuts and sweet corn. A separate beans and peas group receives $25 per acre for varieties not already covered under the FBA Program.