Tariffs Gebbers Pt 2
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. Pleading the case for farmers everywhere, Northwest farmers were in Washington D.C. speaking up for the ag industry heavily targeted in an international trade war.
Cass Gebbers, president and CEO of Gebbers Farms in Brewster, told the House Ways and Means subcommittee on trade last week that growing tariffs in China are forcing apple and cherry growers to alter their course ...
GEBBERS ... "Those boats have been rerouted to Vietnam or Taiwan or they've been stuffed back into the U.S. market which is creating an extra supply and forcing down prices, all of this at the expense of our growers."
Gebbers says we can't just pass along the higher costs ...
GEBBERS ... "We can't just pass these prices on. I'll give you an example. Cherries were about $8 bucks a pound in China. You guys all pay about $2.99 to $1.99 a pound on ad here at Whole Foods or Safeway. We tried to raise those cherries to $10 a pound or $11 a pound. Demand went to zero. They said cancel the orders, we're not going to want that fruit at this price."
He says we have worked decades to develop these markets ...
GEBBERS ... "The Apple Commission in Washington is eighty years old. It took forever to develop these markets and I'll give you a quick example, when the ports were shut down in the Northwest and you remember that the shipping deal was kind of a disaster? We lost those markets. And, European fruit, Polish fruit, all kinds of fruit filled in on the back wave of what we left behind and we have had a hard time getting any of those back."
Tune in tomorrow for more on the Gebbers Congressional testimony.
