May 29, 2015
CapitalPress.com
7
Apples to flow between U.S., China
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
YAKIMA, Wash. — China
will be allowed to export apples to
the United States beginning May
26 and the U.S. will be allowed
to export all varieties of apples
to China “on or around May 26,”
according to Northwest Fruit Ex-
porters in Yakima.
The USDA has announced
those developments, said Fred
Scarlett, NFE manager.
“I think it will be a valuable
market for the industry,” he said.
A reciprocal agreement be-
tween the two nations was an-
nounced on Jan. 26. Paperwork
and protocol to make it happen is
just wrapping up.
The Washington State De-
partment of Agriculture cannot
inspect any shipments for China
until it receives USDA approval
and importers still need to get per-
mits, Scarlett said.
Washington apple shippers
have been working for years to
gain full varietal access to Chi-
na and China has been working
for years to sell its Fuji apples in
the U.S. Washington shippers
dropped their opposition to Chi-
nese access into the U.S. a few
years ago in hopes it would open
the door to selling more U.S. ap-
ples to China.
Red and Golden Delicious
apples from Washington, Ore-
gon 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.
When shipments resumed
Nov. 1, they were immediately
hobbled by work slowdowns at
U.S. ports.
Nonetheless, close to 1 million
40-pound boxes of Washington
Red Delicious have been shipped
into China since then, Scarlett
said.
Red Delicious is the main
variety left in abundance to be
shipped this season. Shippers and
the Washington Apple Commis-
sion have said full access will be
more helpful after this fall’s har-
vest.
Scarlett said he does not know
when or where the Chinese are
planning their first exports to the
U.S.
The combined China-Hong
Kong market peaked at 3 million
boxes in 2010-2011. The Apple
Commission and other industry
officials are hopeful China will
become a major market of 10 mil-
lion boxes annually in a few years.
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Ninfa Duarte loads a tray of Red Delicious apples into a box for
shipment at McDougall & Sons Inc., Wenatchee, Wash., on April
9. Almost 1 million boxes of Red Delicious have been shipped to
China this season and other varieties are now being allowed.
Calif. cherries
wrap up light
5.7 million boxes
expected in
early season
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
RICHLAND, Wash. — Cal-
ifornia will wrap up its early
cherry season about the end of
May, dovetailing nicely with
Washington’s crop and likely
short of its estimate.
That’s what Tate Mathison,
sales director at Stemilt Growers
Inc., Wenatchee, told growers at
the Five State Cherry Commis-
sion meeting in Richland, May
20.
Mathison was just back from
the company’s subsidiary in
Stockton, Chinchiolo Stemilt
California.
“As of yesterday, Califor-
nia was just under 3.5 million
(18-pound) boxes and 260,000
were shipped yesterday which
was a good shipping day,” he
said.
The California Cherry Ad-
visory Board in Sacramento
estimated the crop at 5.7 million
boxes, down from an 8.5-mil-
lion-box norm, due to lack of
winter chill and too much heat
during pollination.
Harvest started April 11 near
Bakersfield, beating the most
recent early record of April 14,
2005. Harvest is now centered
in Bings in the Stockton, Lodi
and Delta areas.
California quality is the best
in years, said Rob Stewart, man-
ager, Stadelman Fruit, Zillah,
Wash. That helps Washington
by setting a good experience
with consumers, said Mike Tay-
lor, Stemilt vice president of
sales and marketing.
Half the Bings were treated
with a dormant breaking agent
to push fruit early, Mathison
said.
“We may have five or six
good shipping days left in the
state,” he said. “I think they
will pick short of the esti-
mate. It will be a struggle to
get to 5 million.”
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Cherries are a ways out from harvest at Ruiz Orchard east of Sunnyside, Wash., on May 20. Cherries were riper in the Tri-Cities and
Early crop gives NW cherry growers high hopes
Record June sales
Vineyard adds new dimension volume foreseen
By DAN WHEAT
to Iverson Family Farms
Capital Press
By JAN JACKSON
For the Capital Press
WOODBURN, Ore. —
The Iverson family, well
known producers of corn,
grass seed, wheat, pump-
kins, green beans and an
annual tulip festival, are
now growing grapes and
selling wine.
The wine from the six
acres of grapes they plant-
ed six years ago has been
so well received they are
converting another two to
four acres next year.
Ken Iverson, who is
managing the vineyard,
credits his son John with
the idea.
“The family has a pol-
icy that for a grandchild
to come back and be part
of the farm he must gradu-
ate from college and work
for someone else for two
years,” Ken said. “John
did that, and after two
years at Oregon Vineyard
Supply, he is now the first
third-generation
mem-
ber of the Iverson family
team. It was his idea that
we plant the grapes. The
family talked it over, de-
cided to take out some
wheat and grass seed
fields and here we are.”
They chose the white
Spanish grape Albarino,
a Moscato table grape, a
Pinot Noir and the hybrid
French wine grape Mare-
chal Foch.
“We were thinking
more about selling grapes
when we started, but de-
cided that since we al-
ready had the infrastruc-
ture and scheduled events,
it would be a good idea to
add our own wine,” Iver-
son said.
Laura Lacy, who also
manages the family’s
four-acre formal gardens
(and is marrying into the
family in June), is han-
dling sales and marketing
and the tasting room.
“It has been exciting to
see the whole enterprise
so well-received,” Laura
said. “It has been a labor
of love. Together, Ken and
I took as many classes as
we could at Chemeketa’s
Northwest Wine Studies
Center in West Salem and
together with his brother
Nels, we are now putting
the tasting room togeth-
er.”
To carry out the farm
theme, Nels fashioned bar
stools out of old tractor
seats that sit up to a high-
ly polished bar made from
a beam he salvaged 25
years ago from an old
building.
“We held wine tast-
ings in the tulip field on
weekends during this
year’s festival and the
response and sales ex-
ceeded our expectations.
Our slightly pink spar-
kling blush Moscato old
out in a month and we
won’t have more until
next spring,” she said.
“And we’ve also sold out
of both the Pinot Noir and
the Marechal Foch. Sean
Driggers, from Pudding
River Wine Cellars in Pra-
tum, is coming up with a
Marechal Foch Port for us
and we have already pre-
sold cases of that.”
The newly designat-
ed tasting room, which
opened on Memorial Day
Weekend, is located in the
complex of buildings that
also houses the Wood-
en Shoe offices and gift
shop. Next to the formal
gardens, the picturesque
setting will give wine
tasters a view of the vine-
yards, Mount Hood, tu-
lips and daffodils in the
spring.
Iverson family princi-
pal Barbara Iverson is en-
thusiastic about the new
venture.
“It was time for us to
do something new and
the new wines have been
a good choice,” she said.
“And, there is lot more
to be said for wine tast-
ing events than those that
feature wheat or grass
seed.”
The
Wooden
Shoe
Vineyard tasting room is
open Saturdays and Sun-
days from noon to 5 p.m.
March through December
and families are welcome.
For more information,
visit www.woodenshoe.
com
RICHLAND, Wash. —
With an early but lighter
crop, Pacific Northwest
cherry growers anticipate
a second year of record
June volume and excellent
Fourth of July sales.
The 2015 crop is estimat-
ed at 19.7 million, 20-pound
boxes by the Five State
Cherry Commission that
met at the Red Lion Han-
ford House Hotel in Rich-
land. The forecast is down
15 percent from a record
23.2 million boxes last year.
The commission and
Northwest Cherry Growers
in Yakima represent cherry
growers in Washington, Or-
egon, Idaho, Montana and
Utah.
A rising gross domes-
tic product, continuing low
interest rates, no gasoline
price spike and strong Eas-
ter consumer spending all
point toward good cherry
sales this season, said B.J.
Thurlby, Northwest Cherry
Growers president.
The region experienced
the earliest bloom on re-
cord. Harvest is expected
to start about May 22 in the
Tri-Cities and Mattawa. A
record 10.1 million boxes
were shipped last June, and
shipments may hit 11 mil-
lion this June.
“An early crop usual-
ly has good pricing pull
through,” said West Mathi-
son, president of Stemilt
Growers Inc., Wenatchee,
the nation’s largest sweet
cherry producer.
“It will be a big momen-
tum crop. The month of
June will be one for the re-
cords but overall tonnage is
down,” Mathison said.
“It’s a blessing to be
early,” said Mike Taylor,
Stemilt’s vice president of
sales and marketing.
Mathison
and
oth-
ers spoke of more “spurs
and doubles,” defect fruit
that will reduce packouts.
There’s also been some ear-
ly rain damage.
“Last year, there wasn’t
a whole lot of rain. That’s
not normal and it’s unlike-
ly to happen two years in
a row,” said Doug Pauly,
operations manager of
Northern Fruit Co., East
Wenatchee.
Defects and the pros-
pect of more rain and pick-
er shortages led Wenatchee
District growers to estimate
their crop at 91,000 tons,
down from 102,085 last
year but up from the 89,308
ton three-year average. The
Wenatchee District is ev-
erything north of Interstate
90.
The Yakima District, ev-
erything south of Interstate
90, was estimated at 76,500
tons, down from 83,883 last
year and up from the 70,200
three-year average.
“Chelans overall are
lighter across the state and
the Bing crop also is less.
Packouts will be lower be-
cause of doubles and su-
tures,” said Mark Roy, vice
president of Roy Farms,
Moxee.
Washington makes up 85
percent of the PNW crop.
Damage to cherry trees
from
last
November’s
freeze has taken a toll on
the Oregon crop, said Me-
gan Thompson, chairwom-
an of the Oregon Sweet
Cherry Commission.
“We have trees that look
good, trees that are dead
and everything in between.
Sweetheart and Regina
probably took it the worst,”
she said.
Oregon growers estimat-
ed their tonnage at 22,000
for The Dalles, down from
31,453 last year and down
from a 27,833 three-year av-
erage. Hood River is 5,500
tons, down from 7,564 and
6,345. Milton-Freewater is
450, down from 1,229 and
1,681. The Willamette Val-
ley is steady at 100.
Sally Symms, of Symms
Fruit Ranch in Caldwell,
Idaho, said she hasn’t seen
any freeze damage and that
fruit will come in the sec-
ond week of June at a level
similar to last year. Idaho
is estimated at 1,100 tons,
close to its three-year aver-
age of 926.
Montana is estimated at
700 tons and Utah at 200.
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