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April 3, 2015 CapitalPress.com 5 Apple issues continue in Mexico, China By DAN WHEAT Capital Press WENATCHEE, Wash. — Apple shippers are working to keep their market to Mex- ico open and it likely will be another month or two before they’re able to sell all varieties in China. Mexico continues to con- sider allegations of apple dumping against Washington apple exporters which could lead to duties or even closure of the market. A claim from the Chihua- hua apple growers associa- tion, UNIFRUT, was filed in the Mexican federal register Dec. 4, alleging U.S. shippers, mostly from Washington, sold apples in Mexico in 2013 at less than fair value, damaging Chihuahua growers. That’s unlikely because 2013 was such a profitable year, said Fred Scarlett, man- ager of Northwest Fruit Ex- porters, a nonprofit corpo- ration in Yakima managing export procedures of apples and cherries. About 50 Washington ap- ple exporters responded to a Mexican Ministry of Econo- mia questionnaire by a Feb. 13 deadline and 12 were chosen for further review to determine if they would be assessed a duty, said Todd Fryhover, pres- ident of the Washington Apple Commission in Wenatchee. Those not selected might be assessed a weighted average of the 12 if there are duties, he said. Economia is gathering in- formation from the 12 and lesser amounts from others, Scarlett said. April or May was thought to be the earliest date of a preliminary determination but that now appears to be pushed back to July or early August because of the size and scope of the case, Scarlett said. Preliminary duties could occur at that time with a final determination and any final duties established in about De- cember, he said. Dan Wheat/Capital Press Kevin Vazquez packs trays of Red Delicious apples into boxes for shipment to Mexico at Olympic Fruit, Moxee, Wash., in December. The industry continues to work to prevent anti-dumping duties in Mexico. Mexico is Washington’s No. 1 apple export market, usually good for 10 million boxes or more of apples annu- ally. The peak was 13.6 million in 2012. Fryhover has said he would like to see 14 million or more this season to help con- tinuing sales of Washington’s record crop last fall. Season-to-date shipments are 6.7 million boxes as of March 30, up slightly from last year, Scarlett said. Meanwhile, full varietal ac- cess into China is “signed and ready to go,” but the reciprocal part of Chinese apple access into the U.S. is waiting at the Office of Management and Budget and has to be posted in the Federal Register for a 30-day comment period before final action, Fryhover said. Washington apple shippers are eager for full access to Chi- na, which is expected to be a bigger help after the fall 2015 crop than before, he said. An agreement for recipro- cal apple trade between the two countries was announced Jan. 26. Red and Golden Delicious 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. As of March 15, 600,000 boxes of Washington Reds have been shipped directly to China. The combined Chi- na-Hong Kong market peaked at 3 million boxes in 2010- 2011. Fryhover and other in- dustry officials are hopeful it will become a major market of 10 million boxes in a few years. Friends, family pay tribute to Jack Jones By DAN WHEAT Capital Press Dan Wheat/Capital Press Manual Lujano wedges scion wood for a new tree between the bark and cambium of a cut tree trunk. The yellow paint bucket in background is for sealant. Tree grafters stay busy By DAN WHEAT Capital Press DESERT AIRE, Wash. — It’s a small army of workers over there nicely cast in orchard sunlight as you whip by north- ward on Highway 243. You turn around, go back and pull in on Orchard Drive. Half-a-dozen chainsaws buzz like bees. Cutters quickly lop off main stems of young trees. Of the 30-plus workers who follow, some pull the cut stems from trellis wire. Others use sharp knives to form wedges on one end of 5-inch chunks of sci- on wood. The scion, cut from a desired variety, has been kept fresh in buckets of water. The workers jam the wedge ends between the bark and cambium of the freshly cut tree trunks. Next in the work chain are those who wrap the new unions in tape, applying pressure so the scion wood makes good contact with the cambium layer of the trunk and will grow. Adeline Sanchey is one of many waxers. She dabs gray wax at the top of the unions to keep moisture out. It looks like the easiest task. “It is,” she says, “except in the morning when it’s cold and the wax is hard.” Gloria Ochoa follows Sanchey with a brush and buck- et, painting the unions with yel- low sealant. In time, the sealant, wax and tape decompose and the scion grows into new trees. Grafting is a means of switching varieties without buying whole new trees. The crew works fast. It’s a 16-acre block owned by One- onta Starr Ranch Growers of Wenatchee. The job will be done in three days or less, says Man- uel Lujano, 19, whose father, Jose Lujano, 60, owns 3rd Gen- eration Grafting of Yakima. Lu- jano’s other son, Fernando, 35, also is involved in the operation. “We started as a little family business and have grown,” Man- uel Lujano says. “We do about 150 acres each spring through- out Central Washington.” The company is seasonal with the spring work and then bud grafting in August and September. EAST WENATCHEE, Wash. — A leader in northern Columbia Basin agriculture, Jack Edwin Jones, was hon- ored by family and friends at a memorial service. Jones, 73, Wenatchee, died March 13 from an ex- tended illness. The March 27 memorial service was held at Eastmont Baptist Church in East Wenatchee, followed by a reception at Pybus Public Market in Wenatchee. Jones was co-owner of Jones Produce, a fruit and vegetable company with family roots dating back to the 1950s, and was found- er and owner of Jones of Washington, a winery and vineyard he started in 2001. Both companies are in Quincy, 30 miles southeast of Wenatchee. “He was very famil- iar with risk and when he made a mistake, he didn’t let it get him down. He would always move on,” said Mike Scott, former vice president of Jones Fruit & Produce. “He was willing to ex- periment for awhile, but he wanted to move on into large production of what- ever it was. He had lots of Red Delicious, lots of asparagus, onions and po- tatoes. In each of those enterprises, he was big enough for any one per- son,” Scott said. Jones was among the first in the Quincy area to grow asparagus, red d’An- jou pears, blueberries and wine grapes, Scott said. “The people through- out all of Jack’s compa- nies will be committed to continuing Jack’s leg- acy. He was just, fair and tried to treat people right,” said Glen Goodman, busi- ness associate of the Jones Group of Companies. Jones was born in Twin Falls, Idaho, in 1941. His family moved to Quincy in 1954 as one of many fami- lies making new farms from sagebrush lands due to the arrival of irrigation water from the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project. The family grew potatoes east of George and operat- ed a potato packing shed in Winchester, east of Quincy. Jones married Patri- cia Flanagan in 1969 and joined his father-in-law, Sid Flanagan, a state legis- lator, in farming. They grew sugar beets and forages for their feed- lot. Jones eventually bought the business from Fla- nagan and then re- Jack Jones joined his brothers, Mike and Larry, to form Jones Produce in 1983. They raised potatoes, beans, peas, corn, onions, alfalfa and other crops. Jones became interested in tree fruit in the early 1980s, planting an apple orchard and expanding into cherries and pears. He developed relationships with Orondo Fruit, Washington Cherry Growers and Domex Super Fresh Growers. Enjoying challenges, Jones designed and planted his first wine grape vine- yards on the Wahluke Slope in 1997. He started his win- ery in 2001. Jones of Washington now offers more than 15 varietals, sold in 14 states. The company was named Washington Winery of the Year by Wine Press North- west in 2012. In 2008, Jones of Wash- ington and Shaw Vineyards established a grape crush- ing plant near in Mattawa. J&S Crushing is now one of the region’s larger grape processors. Jones’ son, Greg, man- ages the family’s vineyards. His son, Jeff, manages oth- er crops for Jones Produce. His daughter, Megan, works in marketing at Jones of Washington and his daugh- ter, Maureen, works in spe- cial events. His brother, Mike, con- tinues as president of Jones Produce. Northwest acres post increase; nation down 3 percent By MATTHEW WEAVER Capital Press The USDA’s forecast for wheat acreage and supplies is smaller than the industry ex- pected, but it will take a major problem with this year’s crop to push prices higher, analysts say. The USDA prospective plantings report calls for less wheat than the industry expect- ed, said Henry Kornegay, pres- ident of Jackson Commodities in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. The average trade guess for all wheat was roughly 55.612 million acres, and USDA re- ported 55.367 million acres, Kornegay said, with 12.97 mil- lion spring wheat acres instead of the 13.24 million acres antic- ipated. The U.S. estimate is down roughly 3 percent from 56.822 million in 2014. According to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service Northwest regional field office in Olympia, North- west wheat acres are up 3 per- cent from the previous year. Idaho wheat producers ex- pect to plant 1.33 million acres of wheat, up 4.4 percent from 1.27 million acres in 2014. Or- egon wheat producers antici- pate planting 850,000 acres, up 2.4 percent from 830,000 acres in 2014. Washington wheat farmers are expected to plant 2.38 million acres, up 2.6 per- cent from 2.32 million acres in 2014. Even though a report of fewer wheat acres than expect- ed usually means prices go up, Kornegay believes short-term speculators and larger than expected corn stocks and acre- age kept prices down. Wheat prices ranged from $6 per bushel to $6.51 per bushel on the Portland market, accord- ing to the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service, down 18.5 cents from the day before. “Wheat’s getting hammered right now,” agreed Dan Steiner, grain merchandiser for Pendle- ton Grain Growers and Morrow County Grain Growers in Ore- gon. Wheat stocks were also lower than the market antici- pated, he said. Steiner said a strong U.S. dollar and a struggling world economy, including metals and energy prices, are factors in the lower wheat prices. He believes soft wheat prices will range from $6.40 to $6.50 per bushel through early harvest. “There’s a lot of things to actually like about the wheat market, but we’re go- ing to need some good things to happen for any of that to translate into higher prices,” he said. There’s very little 2014 wheat left, particularly in the PNW, Steiner said. The re- gion’s 2015 wheat crop has pockets of good-looking wheat, he said, but the vast majority is “totally under- whelming.” “We’re going to have to work hard to get an average crop,” he said. “It’s certainly doable, but we’re not going to have a bumper crop. Not in the PNW, anyhow. Dry conditions in the south- ern Plains will keep the market supported against any further downward movement until further into the growing sea- son, Kornegay said. “Either we end up with an issue as far as the dryness of the crop condition goes, or we get timely rains, in which case we’ll break and probably go to new lows,” he said. 14-1/#6 Outside factors keep wheat prices low despite lower supply