Fruit prices would go up at the grocery store because of increased demand for fruit. Then there would be an increased demand for fruit pickers, allowing them to negotiate a higher wage. This would lead to more fruit, lower fruit prices, and an eventual balancing of what people are ultimately willing to pay to have fruit. Right now, illegal immigration means that we have artificially cheap fruit.

I hear this argument a lot. I can't help but wonder if at the "true" market price fruit would be unsustainable at current scale, and overall production would plummet. I think a lot of consumers would substitute or forgo fruit at higher costs. For example, I personally only buy berries when they are on sale for $1 a pint. At $4+ they aren't something I want to spend my money on.

In other words, small scale production for wealthy consumers would be the only viable market for fruit.

I'm not saying that the above scenario is good/bad/right/wrong. But it sounds very disruptive to the status quo.