Tree Fruit in 2023 Pt 2
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. 2022 ended with the tree fruit industry gathering in Wenatchee to share to good and the bad of the year past.
Looking forward, Washington State Tree Fruit Association President, Jon DeVaney says he’s optimistic …
DeVANEY … “I think so. If only because people would still not be in agriculture if they were not optimists. You need to stay hopeful about the future or you would have given up long ago.”
DeVaney says everyone he talks to is hoping we see a year with the kind of weather we’re used to …
DeVANEY … “There’s a lot of optimism that we can have a return to more normal sized crops and fewer challenges with managing the workforce in either cold or hot weather, as we’ve had over the last two years, unusually so, during production and harvest period.”
But there are also other challenges to consider …
DeVANEY … “The broader economy is the big unknown and I will say right now, there’s a lot of political unknowns as well about what kind of public policy environment we will be facing.”
That environment, DeVaney says usually comes with more complicated challenges …
DeVANEY … “The legislature has come in to session here in January, in Washington, and we have quite a few issues that we’re working through and I’m optimistic there as well that we’ll be able to get positive outcomes. But there’s a lot of complicated discussions that we’re engaged in at the moment on issues that will affect the industry.”
Again, that’s Jon DeVaney, President of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association.
