Apple Inc.

Los productores de manzana de Estados Unidos tienen pesadillas en las que mueren ahogados por el apple juice chino. La ventaja china, como siempre, es su económica mano de obra: cada trabajador cobra 2 dólares por día, contra los 10/14 dólares LA HORA en EEUU... ¿alguien sabe cuánto garpan en el Alto Valle por estas faenas?

But the growers who have made this mountainous region the core of apple-growing in Pennsylvania worry about a challenge that may be too big to overcome and that could change their way of life.

Like farmers in the bigger apple-producing states, they are increasingly anxious that China could flood the U.S. market with its fresh apples - an event many believe is inevitable, even if it could be years away.

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"We have to lower our costs and we have to do what other successful business have done in the face of Chinese competition and that is to innovate, to stay ahead, to either grow new varieties that they don't grow in China, or whatever it takes," Rice said.

Fifteen years ago, China grew fewer apples than the United States. Today, it grows five times as many - nearly half of all apples grown in the world.

China's advantage is its cheap labor. A picker makes about 28 cents an hour, or $2 a day, according to the U.S. Apple Association. In 2005, workers in Pennsylvania made about $9 to $10 per hour, and those in Washington State about $14 per hour, the association said.