12/31/08 A Look Back Part 2

A Look Back Part 2. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. 2008 bring a close to a fairly bumpy ride in the ag industry. The tree and vine industries rode the waves of both highs and lows. The late spring, missing bees and the uncertainty of the labor force caused many headaches over the course of the year. But some positive things happened like the re-launching of a new wine website according to Trisha Belcastro. BELCASTO: LoveWashingtonWine is an online website where small boutique wineries in Washington State gather to sell their wines online and these maybe wines that are award winning wines, they're hard to find, sought after wines where they may not have the nationwide distribution that the big wineries have but their fabulous wines. Part of the immigration dance this last year was the No Match letter fiasco that was finally halted by a California judge. The issue is not dead. In April, long time director of the Hort Association Jim Hazen left for a new position at Broetje Orchards as business manager. And then the Washington Apple Commission suddenly put Dave Carlson on administrative leave with no explanation. He was replaced recently by Todd Fryhover. FRYHOVER: My goal right now in the short term is we really need to show our consumers internationally that we're not just Red Delicious although Red Delicious is the thing that we grow better than anyone else in the world; we have 8-9 different varieties that we can grow just as well. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.