 |
08/23/11U.S. Apple ConferenceLast week, I attended the USApple Outlook Conference in Chicago in association with a USApple Board of Directors meeting, of which, I am now the Chairman of the State Advisory Committee. Someone within our ranks deserves a thank you from me. As you know, the primary purpose of attendance is to receive the total apple crop numbers from the United States, but also to get information regarding the EU, Mexico, Canada, the Southern Hemisphere, and China. The official publication with most of this information is the ‘Production and Utilization Analysis’. If you would like a copy, please let me know and I can copy mine and mail it to you.For those of you not in attendance, I have included several documents for your review, but here are the highlights;· The total... |
 |
07/16/11Early Morning Media BlitzAs National Rainier Cherry Day came and went this week, the team here at the Northwest Cherry Growers have been hosting a bevy of food writers and bloggers, who have come from around United States to cover this season’s cherry harvest. This morning I introduced a photographer from a “major” lifestyle magazine to Mr. Mark Hanrahan, a grower in the Zillah area. As the sun came up over the surrounding orchards and the morning shadows gave way to a perfectly clear image of Mt. Rainier on the horizon, our photographer commented that it was “a perfect day to be alive … a perfect day to shoot these amazing cherries." Then the photographer asked us to keep the name of the major publication he was working for “confidential,” because the article... Posted at 02:50 PM | Permalink | Comments: 1 |
 |
06/28/11The Sweet Cherry BusinessThe 2011 Northwest Cherry season is finally under way … with first harvest starting to trickle in on June 18th … we are finally starting to see some volume build, as we expect to have close to 200,000, 20-pound-equivalent boxes packed today. At the very peak of the season, the Northwest industry will pack over 500,000 boxes per day.Coming out of the chutesDemand has exceeded supply through the industry’s first million boxes. Retail groups are setting ads for the week after the 4th, and we will see many of our promotional programs line up during the week of July 17th. We will have promotions going worldwide by then, hoping to keep demand above the increased supply of the last half of July and into mid-August.Importantly, I have a really good feeling about the... |
 |
06/07/11Waiting on the 2011 CropUp to this point, the theme for the 2011 Northwest Cherry season has been “hurry up and wait.” On that note, I saw some cherries showing slight red in the Columbia Basin last week. In a normal year, we would be harvesting those cherries today. For better or for worse…this has not been a “normal year” in the cherry business. It appears that the earliest pick here in the Pacific Northwest will be on or near June 13th, which will make this the latest start for cherry harvest that most growers have ever seen. When you have the coldest April on record, and the third-wettest May ever…the inevitable result is a later harvest.However, there still appears to be a moderate-size crop on the trees, and we will have all of July and August to harvest and... |
 |
06/01/11Corporate WelfareOn May 20th, I had the pleasure of attending an agricultural roundtable in Spokane orchestrated by Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers with Congressman Jack Kingston of Georgia in attendance. Most of us would be unaware that Congressman Kingston sits on the powerful House Appropriations Committee—the committee that decides how the Federal budget is spent—and in 2011 was appointed as the Chairman of Appropriations Committee’s Agricultural Subcommittee. This makes the congressman an influential politician with opinions on the upcoming Farm Bill, and inclusive of this and more specifically, the Market Access Program (MAP), of which the Washington Apple Commission receives several million dollars each year. To her credit, Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers understands the... |
 |
05/06/11Eating red to a healthy heartThree new studies link eating red to a healthy heart. Tart cherries contain powerful antioxidants that reduce inflammation, a risk factor for heart disease. • Reduced Inflammation and Cardiovascular Risk: Drinking eight ounces of tart cherry juice daily for four weeks significantly reduced important markers of inflammation in a study of 10 overweight or obese adults.• Reduced Atherosclerosis and other Heart Disease Risks: A cherry diet (at 1% of diet as tart cherry powder) reduced C-reactive protein and other markers of inflammation by up to 36 percent and lowered levels of total cholesterol by 26 percent in a five-month mouse study.• Powerful Antioxidants: The heart benefits may be due to the unique combination of natural antioxidant compounds in the “Super... |
 |
05/02/11Olympia oversteps authority with WACAs is the situation in any business, there is always ‘more to it than meets the eye,’ and this is most certainly the case in my position as leading the Washington Apple Commission ship. Strategizing, developing, executing, and evaluating promotional programs is just one responsibility, but there are many other ‘outside’ influences to our industry. Some in D.C. have proposed cutting MAP (Market Access Program funds = 72% of our budget) or eliminating it entirely, and in Olympia efforts to control state spending include a proposal to reduce all state employee salary cost by three percent. You just never can predict where time and effort must be spent to support the WAC Export Program—in the 28 international markets, in Washington, D.C., or in Olympia.At... |
 |
05/02/11Referendum resultsOn April 25th, U.S. Department of Agriculture announced the results of the recent pear referendum vote among Washington and Oregon's pear growers. The results were a resounding "yes" to continuation, with 96 percent of pear growers who voted in the referendum voting in favor.The marketing order, which was first established by pear growers in 1939, authorizes the establishment of minimum quality and size requirements for fresh pears and the collection of assessments for important activities such as domestic and international promotions, research, industry reports, trade and consumer advertising, consumer outreach and education, public relations, and more.We have the oldest continuous running marketing order in the US. The fresh pear growers in the Pacific Northwest have a... |
 |
04/19/11A Record YearThere are numerous reasons for loving this industry: working closely with the hard-working growers who produce the highest quality apples in the world, impacting consumers around the world to choose Washington State apples over other alternatives, developing a strategic plan with your Board of Directors, and executing this plan with the support of the excellent WAC staff. The most important reason for me, however, is not listed above because it’s more abstract—every single day is unique unto itself providing not an uneventful moment! And unto this, who would have predicted the 2010-2011 Washington apple crop would be the largest ever produced—certainly not me, and I would guess not you, either.As we surpass the previous total crop record of 2008-2009,... |
 |
04/08/11And So It Begins …This is the time of year where we hope that spring weather in the range of 65 degrees is actually upon us … the buds bloom and the bees work. Unfortunately, the 2011 spring hasn’t completely arrived just yet … which is illustrated in the fact that snow is falling in Tieton and Cowiche as I write this post. Last night orchard fans could be heard throughout the growing districts and GS Long bud kill estimates point to the fact that we will see some bud loss in warmer districts that saw temperatures drop to just above 20 degrees. This past week I was able to look at orchards in the Dalles, Hood River, Yakima Valley and Wenatchee and Mattawa. Along the way I saw cherry and soft fruit trees in full bloom (Mattawa and Maryhill along the... |
