Year In Review Part 2

Again today we look at the previous year in the northwest fruit industry and 2014 brought a new entry to the apple industry in the form of the WA 38 variety. It even got a snazzy new name, Cosmic Crisp. Dr. Jim Moyer, Associate Dean of Research at WSU describes the new apple.

MOYER: It's a red apple wit a little yellow in it. It's a sweet, tart taste. It's very crisp and it maintains that crispness in storage extremely well. It'll store for a year and not appreciably lose any of that crispness. The other thing is it doesn't turn brown very fast. It's excellent flavor. The color is appealing.

Immigration was brought to the forefront this last year with statements by the President. Orchardists and vineyard operators felt the crunch as labor was tight. Washington Farm Labor's Dan Fazio commented on the President's proposal.

FAZIO: The question that we are asked is how will this affect agriculture? Some people are saying it will have a negative impact because people with their new found work authorization will leave agriculture. I really don't think that's going to be the case. I think it's going to have very little impact on agriculture and if any impact, a small negative impact.

And 2014 brought about the merger of the Washington State Hort Association, the Wenatchee Valley Traffic Association, Yakima Valley Growers-Shippers Association and the Washington Growers Clearing House Association. Horts, Bruce Grimm.

GRIMM: I had for a long time held the notion that we have too many various organizations doing too many things that are too similar and that there was certainly some duplication of services.

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