Oregon Vineyard and Winery Report

Oregon Vineyard and Winery Report. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. The wine industry in the Northwest continues to grow even though the recent economic crunch has had a bit of an effect. Chris Mertz, with USDA's NASS Oregon Field office discusses their latest report. MERTZ: The 2009 Vineyard and Winery Report shows that there's some obvious signs of economic pressure for the industry. Case sales decreased in terms of both volume and dollar. Sales of cases sold decreased by 5% while the dollar value of all wine sales decreased 16%. How about the value of the grapes? MERTZ: The average dollar value per ton decreased $140 a ton. That's the first decline in value since 2002. In terms of production, 2009 marked the first time the production topped the 40-thousand ton mark so we had a new benchmark. Yields were up from the previous year, up 11% which we were a little down from the previous year. Planted acres increased only a half of a percent while harvested acres increased some 5%. MERTZ: There were some tons that were harvested but they weren't utilized and actually we had a sizable increase in the amount of grapes that were just not harvested at all in 2009 so that's kind of reflecting the industry here has a little bit of economic stress. The increase in the number of wineries crushing grapes in Oregon leveled off in 2009 with a net increase of one winery from 2008. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.