Wine Economic Impact. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Most people know that the wine industry is a big player in the state of Washington. Yesterday, Steve Warner, Executive Director of the Washington Wine Commission announced the results of a brand new economic study.

WARNER: Within the State of Washington the report shows that $8.6-billion was the full economic impact and that’s up significantly from $3-billion in the earlier report.

That earlier study was done in 2007. Warner talks about what this dollar figure means to the state.

WARNER: Really what’s driving a lot of that is in-state employment. We’re close to closing in on 30-thousand jobs in the wine industry or related to the wine industry which is generating roughly $1.2-billion in wages annually. So a significant impact to the economy there. But what I think the state legislatures will probably stand up and take notice are the fact that this economic activity has generated for the state almost $250-million dollars in tax revenue.

Another big figure was the in-state tourism impact.

WARNER: About 2.4-million visits annually are related to the wine industry and that actually resulted in an incremental 1.1-billion estimated spending annually as a result of this increase in tourism.

The report also features a county-by-county break down. Find the complete study at washingtonwine.org.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.