10/02/06 Growing Organic Market

Growing Organic Market. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. It used to be nothing more than a novelty. Something that only a very small group of consumers would buy. Organically grown foods. According to Jeff Boullioun, owner of Busy Bee Orchards, organically grown foods are here. BOULLIOUN: Without a doubt. You can look at the retailers throughout the United States and the World for that and when you get the Wal-Mart's and the Costco's and the major grocery retailers that now have organic sections, it's more than caught on; it's mainstream. Boullioun's orchard produces the certified organic Asian pear among other products and he says there is a big benefit to growing organic. BOULLIOUN: As an organic grower, I have the organic market to go after but I can also sell my organic fruit in the conventional arena. Conversely, a fellow that grows fruit as a conventional grower only has the conventional arena. He cannot sell part of his crop organically. He also says there are a number of things that a grower must have to grow organic. BOULLIOUN: A lot patience; a lot of education and a huge desire to spend more time in your orchard because when we have problem, we don't have quick fixes. We can't go out and spray something and annihilate a given bug, we have to slowly go after it. It's going to take us longer to accomplish things. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.