12/11/08 Managing & Harvesting Tree Fruit in Europe

Managing & Harvesting Tree Fruit In Europe. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. We know the challenges of growing fruit in the northwest but in other parts of the world there are similar challenges that growers can learn from. Dr. Michael Blanke from the University of Bonn in Germany says their climate is similar to the northwest's but Dr. Blanke lists 5 main challenges. BLANKE: The first is scarcity of labor. The second is innovation. Research whether it's in the field of engineering or whether it's in the field of genomics. Then the advantages and the disadvantages of climate change. We only seem to be talking about disadvantages of climate change but there are advantages that we can utilize. Dr. Blanke says there is the change in chemicals that of course is causing some major challenges. And finally he says meeting market demands is something to be worked through. As for labor costs: BLANKE: That's obviously where automation, mechanization comes in whether that's thinning, pruning or harvesting end. Research and breeding brings us new innovation in the field of gps. Traceability is soon going to be an issue of the past. BLANKE: We can do it by bar codes. We can do it by numbers but it's a good marketing tool. It's a good marketing took because your customers can key in this 4 digit or 6 digit number into the computer; say this is the honeycrisp which comes from Mr. Smith's farm in Yakima. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.