Produce is rarely the first, or second or, even, third thing people think about when talking about New York state.

However, the state, home to nearly 20 million people and the shining towers of New York city, is actually a major player in a number of key produce categories and plays a huge role in providing fruits and vegetables to people throughout the northeast and even the entire country.

Despite its urban image, the Empire State is the nation’s second largest producer of apples, snap peas and cabbage, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. The state is third in grape production, fourth in corn silage production and fifth in tart cherries, green peas and squash production.

Furthermore, the USDA said the state operates about 30,650 farms, 98 percent of which are family-owned, and the average farm is about 212 acres. The federal agency also said that 6.5 million acres of land are in production in New York, scattered throughout the state from the furthest tip of Long Island to the fertile Finger Lakes region, to western New York and the most northern part of the state.

What could be wrong?

The answer, of course, is New York is an expensive state to operate in and the state is known for its state and local regulations that many farmers say make doing business difficult, expensive and, some say, downright frustrating.

First, labor costs are among the highest in the nation and many farmers simply report that finding people to work the farms during the harvest season can be extremely difficult and time consuming. Second, land values are also extremely high, making expansion of existing farms extremely difficult. Third, perhaps more than just about any other state in the nation, farmers are competing with real estate developer —looking to build homes, solar panel farms, other businesses — on the same land.

It is so difficult that the state has seen the number of farms drop by nearly 10 percent and farm acreage decrease by about 5 percent since 2017, the USDA reported. Another chilling statistic is that the average producer age in the state keeps ticking up, now standing at nearly 57 years of age.  Meanwhile, the agency reports in its 2022 Ag Census that net farm income was about $76,281, slightly below the national average.

Still, farming remains big business in New York and the state has a superb reputation, thanks to fertile soil and a temperate climate, for producing quality produce. At the top of the list stands apples. According to the New York Apple Association, the Empire State, with nearly 600 growers and more than 11 million trees, grows more apple varieties than any state.

Many of the new varieties comes from the Cornell University’s AgriTech, a Geneva, NY-based program that is part of the school’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. The program works with farmers and various associations, including the New York Apple Association, to develop and then market new types of apples.

The state government is also involved in marketing home-grown produce. Its department of agriculture has developed the Taste NY campaign that is designed to highlight the “quality, diversity and economic impact of food and beverages grown, produced or processed” in the state. The program uses events, retail locations and various partnerships to create awareness of products produced in the state.

The state’s “Grown & Certified” program is designed to make it easy to identify products produced in the state, with a focus on food safety and environmental standards as well as promoting farmers in the state.