Ports and Exports Pt 2
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. The removal of tariffs on U.S. apples to India and some smoother sailing at West Coast ports, are just a couple of good reasons for Northwest growers to smile.
Jon DeVaney, President of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association, says both should really help exports to Asian markets …
DeVANEY … “India, for example, had gone as high as being our number two apple market before that retaliatory tariff was put in place when our exports there really decreased dramatically.”
And the new dockworkers contract for West Coast ports, DeVaney says is big …
DeVANEY … “Yeah, I think the biggest benefit is predictability. You know, it’s very hard to make a sale when you can’t guarantee that you’re going to be able to get the product there because there’s so many unknowns.”
Growers, DeVaney says have more than enough to worry about …
DeVANEY … “In agriculture, we deal enough with the uncertainties of weather and other aspects of the actual growing process to then not be able to access the transportation or to not know if you can, through regulation and tariffs, access the markets and get to your customers. Those are additional complications that we really don’t need to layer on top of the natural problems of dealing with weather.”
And DeVaney says it’s a big relief …
DeVANEY … “Just having a stable environment at the ports is going to be really helpful in making some marketing plans for this year’s crop.”
Bottom line, DeVaney says it removes much of the guesswork.
