What is a specialty/minor crop?

Specialty crops, crops include most vegetables, fruits, nuts, herbs and spices, as well as nursery plants, and flowers. The Food Quality Protection Act defined minor crops, another term for specialty crops, as a crop grown on 300,000 acres or less. Gross returns per acre for specialty crops may run into the thousands of dollars compared with hundreds of dollars for the large acre crops, such as corn, soybeans, wheat and rice. Specialty crops generate more that $40 billion, about 40 percent of all annual agricultural sales, and account for over fifty percent of all agricultural sales in twenty-three states, including Pennsylvania (66%).

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Last modified Friday, February 13, 2004 14:28