Hort Meeting Part 2

Hort Meeting Part 2. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

The 105^th Annual Northwest Hort Expo will take place on December 7, 8, & 9 in Wenatchee. In addition to the many speakers there will of course be the annual trade show highlighting what’s new in the industry. Among this year’s presenters NW Hort Council’s Mike Willett will be discussing pear exports to China. He says research shows apples and pears are not good vehicles for transferring fire blight.

WILLETT: That’s the same information that was generated years ago in response to the Japanese concerns about fire blight in apples and so it tracks perfectly with all previous research. So we think we can make this work and it’s just a matter of ensuring that we get a fair revue and that the politics of trade between the U.S. and China don’t get in the way.

Many of the topics of discussion at this year’s annual meeting will concern these kinds of issues and Willett says a lot of the issues will be out of our control.

WILLETT: It’s going to be tinged by the concerns of whether or not China rightly or wrongly feels like they’re being treated fairly by the Unites States on a number of issues not just related to agricultural products.

But he does say that there has been some very positive movement.

WILLETT: We continue to move forward, this is probably the most positive situation we’ve been in regarding pear access in the last 15 years.

For more information on the annual hort meeting visit their website at wahort.org.

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