10/18/06 Good Year for Fruit

Good year for fruit. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. 2006 will be remembered as a good year for the Washington fruit crop. Record high production values were recorded for apples, cherries and pears along with cattle & calves. The value of production for apples was $1.23 billion compared with the previous high of $1.18 billion set in 2003. Director of the Washington State Department of Agriculture Valoria Loveland said she's pleased to see a steady rise in the overall value of Washington's diverse agriculture production. She also was quoted as saying while the state's food and agriculture industry must constantly cope with challenges in today's global marketplace, this is definitely positive news. Apples represented 19 percent of the total agricultural value produced. For the first time in many years, fruit and nuts crops surpassed field crops for the highest value of all commodity groups in 2005 with $1.89 billion, 26 percent above 2004. Loveland was pleased with the numbers saying we had a record year in 2005 in many areas, including more than $1.2 billion in sales of apples. For a complete look at the numbers, visit the Washington Dept of Ag's website agr.wa.gov. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.