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FACT CHECK
garlic

Fact check: US loses millions in duties on garlic imports but market impact is unclear

Chelsey Cox
USA TODAY

Editor's note: This story has been updated to include additional data and comment from Christopher Ranch and U.S. government reports. The rating has been changed to reflect this new information.

The Claim: Garlic imported from China is putting California garlic growers out of business

A social media post features two images of garlic plants. One example has roots attached and the other its roots removed. The garlic with roots is what buyers should look for to help ease the burden on California garlic growers, according to the caption.

The claim was posted on Facebook as early as May 9 to the account of user Dianna Westmoreland, but it was user Natasha Richofsky Hayes' repost of the meme on June 5 that recently went viral.

"You can tell the difference by looking at the bottom. If the roots are all removed, leaving a concave, clean spot, it is Chinese. This is required by the Ag Dept. to prevent soilborne plant diseases from entering our country. If the roots are still there, as shown below, it is California garlic. The Garlic Growers Assoc. says not one single US grower cleans out the root end," Hayes wrote.

USA TODAY found a website for a Garlic Growers Association in Ontario, Canada, but none within the United States.

Hayes' post also claimed that only 40% of garlic is grown domestically, while 60% is imported from China, a substantial difference from a decade ago when all garlic sold in America was grown in California.

"Let's say no to Chinese garlic," the post states, along with a request to share it.

Neither Hayes nor Westmoreland responded to a request for comment from USA TODAY.

Roots truly indicate American-grown garlic?

The source of the claim is an 11-year-old blog entry to Christopher Ranch's California Garlic Blog. Talking points in the caption of the viral Facebook post were pulled from the entry "Promising Sign for California Garlic Growers," including a description of domestically grown garlic.

"If you want the most flavorful, fresh, healthy, safe and sustainable product, look for California-grown garlic in the supermarket, by checking for the Christopher Ranch label or selecting garlic bulbs that are off white in color, more heart shaped and have their roots intact," reads the post.

Ken Christopher of Christopher Ranch told USA TODAY the claim references fresh garlic. "The roots are in fact shaved off for phytosanitary reasons," he said. 

However, a glossary maintained by the Agriculture Department states that garlic, along with leeks, onions and other onion relatives "are admissible from countries outside the Western Hemisphere only if the above ground portion of the plant is removed."

"The above ground portions of Allium spp. are inadmissible because of rusts and pests like the leek moth," the glossary states.

Fact check website Snopes also reported that the absence of garlic roots doesn't mean the produce was specifically grown in China and some American-grown garlic plants may also have the roots removed for various reasons.

Are California garlic growers really being out-competed by China?

Christopher told USA TODAY he is among a number of growers continually helping the Commerce Department determine which Chinese exporters are dumping — the legal term for products sold in the country at less than fair value, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission — fresh garlic into the U.S. market, which results in year-to-year fluctuations on export statistics from China.

"Some Chinese shippers can enter garlic at a low tariff while others receive the full duty," Christopher said, and added that while the duty fees have had a massive impact on dumping, yearly results differ.

"The Government Accountability Office has identified that $2.2 billion worth of products — mostly coming from China — have been assessed a duty but haven't been paid. Of that (amount), the largest industry impacted is in fact, garlic, and that's to the tune of over $500 million. That's essentially the amount of damage wrought on the U.S. garlic industry," Christopher said.

A report of an investigation released by U.S. Customs and Border Protection in February revealed duty fee evasion practices by importer IPC International Inc. The company entered fresh garlic from China under a reduced "combination rate" of $0.08 per kilogram instead of the China-wide rate of $4.71 beginning in 2017. This resulted in a loss of tens of millions of dollars in antidumping duties to the U.S. government, according to the report.

Moreover, an antidumping and countervailing duty (AD/CVD) enforcement report for fiscal year 2017 revealed the top six cases for uncollected AD/CVD involve imports from China and account for $2.5 billion (approximately 81 percent) of the $3.1 billion in unpaid duties. Fresh garlic comprised $853.7 million of uncollected fees.

But more recent consequences for the domestic garlic market are unknown, according to Kimberly Gianopoulos, director of international affairs and trade for the U.S. Government Accountability Office.

"We have not done any work to address the effects of unpaid AD/CVD duties and fees on domestic market, including the garlic market specifically," Gianopoulos told USA TODAY in an email.

Nathan Peeters, a representative for Customs and Border Protection, told USA TODAY the agency diligently enforces fair market competition.

"CBP is committed to rigorous and judicious enforcement of all U.S. trade laws, including the collection of antidumping and countervailing duties that result from orders issued by the Department of Commerce and that allow American companies to compete fairly in the global economy," Peeters said.

USA TODAY also reached out to the Agriculture Department for comment.

More:Did you get mysterious seeds that seem to be mailed from China? Here's what you should do

Garlic import data is old

The 2009 blog post from Christopher Ranch claimed that cheaper garlic from China has wreaked havoc on the California market.

"Although California-grown garlic is proven to be a more flavorful, fresher and safer product, Chinese garlic is produced and exported to the U.S. in such mass quantities that it can be sold at a considerably lower price," the post states.

The author also claims "160 million pounds of Chinese garlic was (imported) into the U.S. in 2008 – more than all domestic producers combined."

However, this is outdated information. The most up-to-date import records on vegetable commodities by country reflect a five-year span. Dried garlic imports from China have fallen in that time, according to the Agriculture Department Economic Research Service. 

Per the data, China is the largest supplier of garlic to the U.S., but imports drastically declined beginning in 2018, the most complete data year. Annual imports of dried garlic fell to slightly more than 50 million pounds in 2018, from over 165 million pounds in 2016.

Annual imports of fresh or chilled garlic from China rose from over 126 million pounds in 2016 to around 138 million pounds in 2018, but the combined total import was over 115 million pounds less in 2018 than 2016, according to the Agriculture Department. 

Meanwhile, production of California garlic has significantly increased over the past 12 years, reaching over 523 million pounds in 2018, compared to 391 million in 2008, according to the National Agriculture Statistics Service. 

But agriculture news outlet the Capital Press reported on a brief drop in California garlic production in 2019 due to violent rainstorms. The information was part of a larger story about the growing demand for garlic during the COVID-19 epidemic.

Our rating: Partly false

We rate this claim PARTLY FALSE based on our research. The initial claim stated China was putting California garlic growers out of business. While there is evidence the government loses tens of millions of dollars in anti-dumping duties from some garlic imports from China, the effects on the U.S. garlic market are not conclusive. Also, garlic plants with roots intact are admissible from countries outside the Western Hemisphere, while the above-ground parts are inadmissible, according to the Department of Agriculture. 

Our fact-check sources:

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