More Fruit Year In Review
More Fruit Year In Review. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report.
2105 saw the grand opening of the new WSU Wine Science Center in Richland. Dr. Thomas Henick-Kling, Director of Viticulture & Enology at WSU says the facility will be a benefit to the industry.
HENICK-KLING: The Wine Science Center right here is going to be a world class facility. Much needed space for our researchers and our graduates and graduate students. And a place for the industry in the Pacific Northwest. Our facilities in Prosser and Pullman will continue to be an integral part of our statewide research, teaching and extension efforts.
A computer glitch created an issue at the border for workers trying to get into the country to pick fruit. Dan Fazio with WAFLA was in the thick of the fracas.
FAZIO: We've got an emergency situation with workers stuck at the border and a visa system that is not working out for them. We sent 324 workers to the consulate in Tijuana, Mexico on Monday, June 8th. They were due to help a half a dozen farmers who've invested considerable resources in this H2-A legal worker program.
And water was a major issue that went from bad to worse according to Joye Redfield-Wilder with the Washington State DOE.
REDFIELD-WILDER: It's so early in the season and these are irrigators who have junior water rights or secondary water rights. Their water rights are subject to stream flows and that they usually might have to stop watering in September and now they're having to stop watering by the end of June.
That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.
