Expanded Availability

Jo Lynne Seufer, USDA Risk Management Agency Specialist with the Spokane Regional Office, talks about recent program improvements made to RMA’s blueberry and cherry Multi-Peril Crop Insurance for the 2013 crop year.

SEUFER: We’ve done a perennial fruit crop blueberry and cherry expansion here in the Pacific Northwest. We have expanded our availability for blueberries into Benton, Cowlitz, Franklin, Grant, Snohomish, Walla Walla, and Yakima counties in Washington state due to the expanded acreage and then requests for our insurance product in those counties. We’ve also had a program expansion for our Cherry Actual Revenue History program. That expanded availability has went into Gilliam and Sherman Counties in Oregon, and Kittitas County in Washington state.

Seufer explains the reason for those expansions.

SEUFER: The Cherry Revenue coverage has come into more demand and we’ve expanded that program to better fit our farm program producers needs.

Seufer would also like to remind growers of perennial fruit sales closing dates.

SEUFER: Our sales closing date for the 2013 crop year is coming fast, it’s November 20th, and that’s on a Tuesday, and we just remind producers to visit with their crop insurance agent quickly and see what coverage options best fit their needs.

I’m Lacy Gray and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Ag Information Network.