Hort Convention Kick-off

Hort Convention Kick-off

Hort Convention Kick-off. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

This year’s Washington State Horticulture Association’s Annual Convention opened with over 1300 registrants and those numbers swelled throughout the week. The convention opened with the keynote from Dan Newhouse, Director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture who took a brief look back.

NEWHOUSE: Let’s talk about just a little over a year ago; speaking agriculturally things we’re looking pretty good a year ago. We were seeing record prices in a lot of different commodities, our exports were up exponentially over what they had been. Even people in urban areas were getting the message that agriculture was important to the state, to the economy.

That was last year and as Newhouse says…things change.

NEWHOUSE: My how things can change quickly. It is very difficult to see any real true bright spots when you look at ag products. Certainly none of the crops that I raise at home are on the list of things that are real profitable to raise right now. It has really changed. We are seeing all kinds of challenges when it comes to that bottom line that we guard so closely and not just for farmers but for processors, packers, for everybody.

And while things do seems to be looking up Newhouse says we have a ways to go.

NEWSHOUSE: And we still have some of those issues that were facing us just a short time ago that are unresolved when you talk about labor, when you talk about land use or water of any number of things, we have a tremendous number of challenges facing us that seem even more daunting when the prospect of not having as profitable a year in front of you.

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

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