Dealing with Wildfires

The apple harvest is getting underway here in Washington State but it may have some new challenges other than labor. Wildfires in the state have been causing a lot of issues for tree fruit producers. Not only do orchardists have to worry about the potential to lose an entire orchard to fire any workers picking must also contend with smoke from surrounding fires as a potential respiratory risk. Stephanie Chance with the Washington State Tree Fruit Association.

CHANCE: At this point it's really hard to access any kind of damage, put a value on what has been lost at this point because the fires are still burning up there.

KayDee Gilkey has a related story.

Fire has destroyed a packing house that may have some effect on producers. The Chelan Fruit Cooperative lost one of its two main plants with the other being damaged. Estimates losses are in the $50 to $80 million dollar range and in addition to the loss of the facility there were also some 150-thousand apple bins destroyed. The building provided mostly controlled atmosphere with ability to store some 120 to 130-thousand bins. Extra shifts at the second plant are being planned to take up the loss in packing.

Thanks KayDee. Firefighters continue to work to contain the numerous blazes that are affecting the state.

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