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CapitalPress.com
February 13, 2015
Calif. ag exports imperiled by ports slowdown
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
SACRAMENTO — Almond,
citrus and other California commod-
ity groups say the West Coast ports
slowdown is forcing fruit to rot on
the dock and causing shipping losses
that imperil their industries.
California Citrus Mutual reports
a 25 percent drop in exports in what
would normally be the industry’s peak
shipping season to places like China,
Japan, South Korea and Australia.
Sales are being canceled by cus-
tomers and growers have slowed
harvests so as not to place matured
fruit into the marketplace, the orga-
nization explains.
“There have been some reports
that fruit has been bad and hasn’t
been able to be marketed” once it
reaches its destination, said Dusty
Ference, Citrus Mutual’s director of
grower services.
“As a whole, fruit is sitting on the
dock for 10 days or more, when typi-
cally it will sit for three to five days,”
Ference said. “Sometimes the fruit’s
going from Long Beach or LA ... to
Oakland where it’ll sit there another
10 days before it starts its journey,
where it takes 15 or 20 more days to
(reach its) export country.”
In addition, a delay in the unload-
ing of ships means it’s taking longer
to get containers back to packing
houses, he said. And other needed
supplies, such as nets that protect
mandarins from cross pollination,
have been left to sit on docks, CCM
complains.
Citrus growers are among many
California agricultural industries that
have been affected by the labor dis-
pute between the Pacific Maritime
Association and the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union
and its resulting slowdown in load-
ing and unloading cargo at West
Coast ports.
Among the others:
• Almond handlers and shippers
report the slowdown has caused
delays for hundreds of containers,
dozens of canceled orders, several
re-routed orders at greater expense
and hundreds of thousands of dollars
in congestion and other charges, ac-
cording to Kelly Covello, president
of the Almond Hullers and Proces-
sors Association.
About 70 percent of California
almonds are exported and nearly 80
percent of those exports go through
the Port of Oakland, the AHPA notes.
Almond production provides nearly
$22 billion in annual economic out-
put and supports more than 100,000
jobs, according to a University of
California-Davis economic study re-
leased in December.
• Truck drivers trying to deliv-
er products to the ports face long
waits and sometimes must turn
back, which has prompted them
to charge higher fees to shippers
of walnuts and other commodities,
the California Farm Bureau Feder-
ation reports.
One walnut packer encountered a
$300-per-container surcharge on top
of the regular cost of $1,000 to deliv-
er each container to the Port of Oak-
land, and another had to adjust his
schedule and stop packing because
he’s run out of room at his facility,
according to the Farm Bureau.
• The port slowdown is also caus-
ing problems for pistachio shippers,
said Richard Matoian, executive di-
rector of the Fresno-based American
Pistachio Growers.
“We aren’t able to get stuff
through the port system like we want
or need to,” he said.
The AHPA and other commodi-
ties groups recently sent a letter urg-
ing the two sides to consider how the
slowdown is affecting the economic
future of a vast array of industries,
and asked the federal government to
step in to end the dispute, according
to a news release.
Assemblyman James Gallagher,
R-Nicolaus, and Sen. Jim Nielsen,
R-Gerber, were among 39 Califor-
nia legislators who also sent a letter
to the maritime association and the
union urging a swift resolution to the
dispute.
And the Almond Board of Cal-
ifornia was drafting letters to U.S.
Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack,
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and other
federal officials noting that almonds
are the U.S.’ largest specialty crop
export, reaching over $4 billion in
2013, according to the hullers’ and
packers’ release.
As for the citrus industry, Ference
said he’s unaware of any packers
sending fruit from ports in Canada,
although some have shipped out of
Houston. That’s raised their trans-
portation costs, and a bottleneck at
the Panama Canal has caused its own
delays, he said.
Some commodity groups are con-
cerned that a prolonged slowdown or
a work stoppage at the ports could do
long-term damage to their overseas
markets.
“There is that potential,” Ference
said.
E. Idaho growers report slow hay sales
By JOHN O’CONNELL
Capital Press
John O’Connell/Capital Press
An Idaho Falls, Idaho, grower harvests hay in June. Farmers in that
area say their 2014 crop, especially feeder hay, has been slow to
move.
no longer wanted the supply.
Gellings recently agreed to
discount his high-quality hay
for a different buyer, provided
that he would also take some
rain-damaged hay.
According to Idaho’s Feb.
6 weekly hay report, fair to
good alfalfa was trading at
$150 per ton, compared with
$80 for utility hay, and “trade
was very slow” for the week
with “light demand for ex-
port and feeder hay.” In the
Columbia Basin, demand for
supreme and feeder quality al-
falfa was weak to $14 per ton
lower and “trade is very slow
for both domestic and export
markets.”
Dubois, Idaho, farmer
Chad Larsen acknowledg-
es there’s still a lot of moldy
hay around, and though most
of his premium hay has been
sold to China, it’s sitting on
the farm due to a labor dispute
slowing down West Coast
ports.
“That is our biggest is-
sue. We cannot get any hay
moved,” Larsen said.
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Red Delicious apples are packed Dec. 11 at Olympic Fruit in Moxee, Wash. They have been the main
U.S. variety going into China for the past two decades. All U.S. varieties soon will be allowed in and
Washington apple shippers are anxious for China to become a large market.
China pushed as new apple market
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
WENATCHEE, Wash. —
Leaders of the Washington Ap-
ple Commission say a trip they
just completed to China helped
get Washington apples into the
minds of Chinese importers, re-
tailers and consumers.
Todd Fryhover, commission
president, and Barbara Walken-
hauer, commission chairwom-
an and owner of Larson Fruit
Co. in Selah, were in China the
day after the commission’s Jan.
26 announcement that the U.S.
and Chinese governments had
approved trade of all apple vari-
eties between the two countries.
Fryhover, Walkenhauer and
the commission’s Hong Kong
representative, Philander Fan,
promoted Washington apples to
importers, retailers and media in
Beijing, Shanghai and Guang-
zhou over three days.
“It went very, very well. There
was a lot of interest. A lot of media
was there,” Walkenhauer said.
Samples of Honeycrisp,
Cripps Pink and several club va-
rieties were provided for people
to taste, she said.
Press conferences in each of
the three cities were followed by
lunch or dinner with importers,
she said.
Fryhover and other industry
officials are hopeful China and
Hong Kong will become a ma-
jor market in a few years of up
to 10 million boxes of apples
annually, roughly worth $200
million. The combined market
peaked at 3 million boxes in the
2010-2011 marketing season.
Red and Golden Delicious
Mexico extends deadline
in apple dumping inquiry
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
YAKIMA, Wash. —
U.S. exporters have been
given more time to complete
questionnaires related to al-
legations that they dumped
apples in Mexico during the
2013-2014 sales season.
Meanwhile, they contin-
ue to ship apples to Mexico
as part of the current 2014-
2015 sales season.
The Chihuahua ap-
ple growers association,
UNIFRUT, filed a complaint
in the Mexican federal regis-
ter Dec. 4 alleging U.S. ship-
pers, mostly from Washing-
ton, sold apples in Mexico
during 2013 at less than fair
value, damaging Mexican
growers.
U.S. shippers were ini-
tially given until Jan. 29 to
respond to a questionnaire
from the Mexican Ministry
apples from Washington, Or-
egon and Idaho were allowed
into China in 1993. They were
banned from August 2012 to
Oct. 31, 2014, after disease was
found in some shipments.
With full varietal trade now
approved, shipments of other
varieties may begin in 30 to 60
days. But the heavy shipping
season in advance of the Feb.
19 Chinese New Year has been
of Economia seeking de-
tails on production costs and
sales prices. The ministry
could impose anti-dump-
ing duties or even close the
market if it decides apples
were dumped, but the pro-
cess to do that or dismiss the
allegations will likely take
months.
Northwest Fruit Export-
ers, a nonprofit corporation
in Yakima managing export
procedures for apples and
cherries, petitioned the Min-
istry of Economia for a 20-
day extension of the ques-
tionnaire deadline and was
granted 10 days, said Fred
Scarlett, NFE manager. The
new deadline is Feb. 13.
“My understanding is
many shippers are working
on them. One shipper told
me he thought they were
done two weeks ago and
then had more to do,” Scar-
lett said.
missed.
Washington shipped 364,646
boxes of Red Delicious apples
into China between Oct. 31 and
Jan. 31, despite the West Coast
port slowdown that has ham-
pered exports, said Rebecca
Lyons, the commission’s export
marketing director.
A total of 767,000 boxes
were shipped into Hong Kong
during the same period, she said.
That market was never closed.
That’s a decrease of 10 percent
from the same period last year
which is probably due to the di-
rect opening to China, she said.
Traditionally, other varieties of
Washington apples have flowed
from Hong Kong into China
through gray market channels.
LEGAL
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Mon. March 2, 2015 • 10 a.m.
• Unit 25
Brandy Logan
• Unit 99
Christopher Stewart
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reserves the right to refuse
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legal-7-2-5/#4
IDAHO FALLS, Idaho
— The first 80 bales of Matt
Gellings’ 2014 hay crop fi-
nally moved from the farm in
early February.
He said his neighbors in
the Idaho Falls area have also
found little interest in their al-
falfa.
Following a 2014 season
in which monsoonal rains
caused widespread damage to
Idaho hay and grains, Idaho
growers worry unsold, mar-
ginal feed is carrying over
into this season and will de-
press the local market.
At least in the Idaho Falls
area, Gellings said, buyers
have snubbed even high-qual-
ity hay.
“All of the dairies are get-
ting cheap barley and cheap
corn and have started cutting
back on hay,” Gellings sur-
mised.
In October, Gellings
reached a verbal agreement
to sell his hay to a broker.
The broker never returned to
write a check or collect the
hay, claiming his dairy buyers