National Grape & Wine Policy Conference

National Grape & Wine Policy Conference

National Grape & Wine Policy Conference. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report.

There is a lot behind all those bottles of wine on the grocers shelf. You'd think it was just some fermented grapes. Vicky Scharlau, executive director of the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers says there is an important conference coming up this month in Washington DC.

SCHARLAU: This year's National Grape & Wine Policy Conference, which is a consortium between the Wine Grape Growers of America and Wine America. So the idea is to bring in the nations wineries as well as growers and first there is a several days conference talking about the major issues that impact the grape and wine industry at that national level and then there's also time for each delegation, each state or each region to visit their congressional representatives.

The conference will also feature a number of speakers discussing various topics important to the wine industry.

SCHARLAU: The industry at the national level really looks at this as being a great opportunity to help educate and inform the congressional delegations from each state, because we are the largest specialty crop in the U.S. and even though we are very small in many states, when you accumulate all 50 states and the wineries and the growers that exist in almost all of those states we can be a very forceful and impactful organization.

The conference runs May 18th through the 21st at the Holiday Inn Capitol in Washington DC. You can still register online to attend. Scharlau says any wine grape grower or winery should consider attending.

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

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