10/09/08 Record Breaking Year

Record Breaking Year. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Agriculture in the northwest is big business. We produce some of the most important crops in the world right here. 2007 was again a banner year for Washington agriculture as the state's agricultural value broke records for the third straight year. Bob Gore is the acting director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture. GORE: For the third year in a row we have seen these increases and we had for the first time ever two crops, apples and milk production over a billion dollars and in terms of our top ten commodities in the state, 9 out of 10 showed gains in the value; farmgate value of production. Gore says there are a number of reasons why agriculture continues its gains. GORE: There's a number of reasons. In some cases its global inventories, some instances it's the strength of the export market and that has to do with the value of the dollar compared to foreign currency. I think that a lot of it is the quality and the reputation that Washington state commodities have for quality that creates a sustainable demand both domestically and internationally. Smaller crops known as specialty crops are making up a large portion of the ever increasing ag dollar. GORE: Washington State is the third largest grower of specialty crops in the United States behind California and Florida. When you couple that with the local movement and demand for locally produced quality fruits and vegetables and specialty crops it has created a demand that is challenging the supply side of the equation. The top 5 commodities in Washington are apples, milk, wheat, potatoes and cattle. Gore says that even though this is another record breaking year it is becoming tougher each year to be a farmer. GORE: The cost of production that growers are facing now is escalating at a very rapid rate and the cost of production today has almost doubled over the course of the last 4 or 5 years in many commodity scenarios. You know that crystal ball is a little bit cloudy at this point. What is the strength of the dollar going to be on the international market, how strong our export markets are going to be, are global stocks and inventories going to rebound somewhat but I would hope that we could sustain this level. After 3 years of record prices, my hope is that this is a trend. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.