03/23/07 Talking About Wines Future

Talking about wines future. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Congressman Doc Hastings met with members of the Washington Association of Wine Grape Growers in his Washington, D.C. office. According to Hastings the wine industry would like to see more dollars spent on research. HASTINGS: They are part of a larger coalition as the Farm Bill comes forward next year, the wine industry and obviously by definition, the wine grape industry would like to have more research dollars included in the Farm Bill. This is something that I have been working with them on for the last several years and now that we are coming to the point of reauthorizing the Farm Bill this is where their main emphasis is. Hastings acknowledges that the wine industry in the Northwest has been on an upswing and feels it's important to support that increase. HASTINGS: We all know the wine industry is growing by leaps and bounds in Washington State and we simply need to have the research there in order to keep that industry going. So that is principally what they are asking. I think they're obviously making very good wine and sales are very robust, we want to keep that momentum going. Washington wine grape production in 2006 totaled 120,000 tons, up 9 percent from 2005 and 12 percent above 2004. Washington State is the second largest wine producer in the U.S. producing over 20 varietals from 9 major AVA's. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.