Economic Woes Hurt Ag

Economic Woes Hurt Ag

Economic Woes Hurt Ag. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. Agriculture's economic downturn has swept across Oregon, negatively impacting all but one of the state's 36 counties when it comes to ag sales in 2009. Times are tough in the pocketbook for Oregon farmers and ranchers. New Oregon State University statistics show a decrease of nearly 15 percent in total agricultural sales last year. That concerns Katy Coba, director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture. COBA: This is unusual for Oregon agriculture. Typically we'll have one or two sectors that struggle in an economic downturn. But the nature of this one, we have most of the top sectors are down. Oregon's top ten agricultural counties remain the same, even though there have been a couple of changes in the ranking. However, all ten saw decreases in ag sales. COBA: Usually we'll have counties that bear better than others. All across the board, county sales down as well. Marion County is still the number one ranked county in Oregon in terms of production, but even their sales are down. In fact, 23 counties saw double digit percentage drops in ag sales last year. The lone bright spot was Hood River County, which actually posted a nine percent increase, thanks largely to its pear industry. For the record, Oregon's top ag counties are Marion, Umatilla, Morrow, Clackamas, and Klamath followed by Washington, Linn, Malheur, Yamhill, and Polk. Coba says 35 of Oregon's 36 counties had decreases in agricultural sales last year, which has never happened in recent history. COBA: The sole one with increased sales- Hood River County. Good for them. They've had their struggles in the past, so I'm sure their happy to see that they actually have increased sales. I know the pear industry up there is actually doing fairly well. That's wonderful news for Hood River County and we're going to hope that all the other counties follow in their footsteps in the coming years. Coba says, in general, the Willamette Valley counties have faced a bit tougher time the past couple of years compared to their east side counterparts when it comes to the top ten list of agricultural counties. COBA: Washington and Clackamas counties have typically been two, three, four- somewhere in there. They've dropped. Marion County is number one. So we have three of the top six are west side counties. The other three- Umatilla, Morrow, and Klamath- are east side counties. But again, all of them are seeing decreases in sales. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.
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