September 11, 2015
CapitalPress.com
13
Calif. olive growers fret as production costs rise
By TIM HEARDEN
Capital Press
ORLAND, Calif. — Table
olive growers in California
expect a big rebound in yields
this fall and prices to farm-
ers have never been better,
but producers are still having
trouble making ends meet.
That’s because production
costs such as labor and water
prices have escalated while the
roughly $1,000 per ton average
that growers have been paid for
olives has remained stagnant
over the past several years, said
Adin Hester, president of the
Visalia-based Olive Growers
Council of California.
“We’ve seen some of the
best averages (for growers)
that we’ve had within the last
decade or two, but we’re stuck
there,” said Hester, noting
that growers are in the midst
of bargaining with processors
for prices for this year’s crop.
This year’s table olive
crop statewide is expected to
come in at 60,000 tons, about
52,000 tons of which are the
Manzanillo variety, according
to the National Agricultural
Statistics Service. Such a crop
would be 62 percent larger
than last year’s crop of 37,120
tons as freezes and a lack
Growers have received an average of $4,000
an acre for table olives, and direct production
costs run about $2,000 an acre. Then labor
costs are another $1,600 or so an acre
of water diminished yields,
NASS reported.
In Northern California,
yields appear to be mixed, said
Dani Lightle, a University of
California Cooperative Exten-
sion crop advisor in Orland.
“The Manzanillo crop up
here in general did pretty well,
but I’ve heard the Sevillano
crop is not so hot,” Lightle
said. Statewide, the Sevillano
production is forecast at 7,000
tons, according to NASS.
The harvest is set to be-
gin in late September, Lightle
said.
Olive trees are alter-
nate-bearing, but yields have
fluctuated wildly in the last
decade, peaking at a record
170,000 tons in 2010 but
coming in below 40,000 tons
four times since 2006, accord-
ing to NASS.
Growers have received
an average of $4,000 an acre
for table olives, and direct
production costs run about
$2,000 an acre, he said. Then
labor costs are another $1,600
or so an acre, he said.
“Then how do you do debt
service, overhead or return on
equity?” he said.
All the uncertainty sur-
rounding table olives has
prompted many growers to
switch to more lucrative nuts
or navel oranges, Hester said.
NASS projects this year’s
bearing acreage to be 18,000,
down significantly from the
peak of 38,000 acres about a
decade ago.
That, in turn, has led pro-
cessors to turn to cheaper im-
ported olives to keep up with
demand, Hester said.
“We’re concerned because
we’re at a critical level acre-
age-wise now,” he said. “There’s
no way California can produce
enough table olives now to sat-
isfy two domestic processors
(Bell Carter Olive and Musco
Family Olive Co.), so they’re
forced to go offshore.”
Gilbert Orchard appeals
Visiting bean industry leaders
impressed with Idaho seed quality state pesticide fine
By DAN WHEAT
By SEAN ELLIS
Capital Press
Capital Press
HOMEDALE, Idaho — A
group of Mexican bean indus-
try representatives who visited
Idaho Sept. 2-5 said they were
extremely impressed with the
quality of Idaho dry bean seed.
“The quality of seeds
you’re producing here is very
impressive,” said Benny Rem-
pel, general manager of an ag-
ricultural company in Chihua-
hua state.
Rempel said that during
the visit he saw “a couple of
varieties that we would like to
try down there and see if they
work for us.”
Attendees who were part
of the in-bound trade mission
were taken on a tour of the Ida-
ho State Department of Agri-
culture’s pathology lab, where
seeds are tested and certified as
disease-free and visited bean
field trials at University of Ida-
ho’s Kimberly and Parma ex-
periment stations.
They also visited dry bean
farms and Treasure Valley
Seed Co.’s production facility
in Homedale.
“I have seen some very
interesting things and ... new
production systems. It’s differ-
ent from what we have,” said
Erasmo Robles, a seed dealer.
Robles said it’s likely the
visit would result in his cus-
tomers purchasing Idaho bean
seed “since the seed you pro-
duce here is very good and
seed of your quality is really
the starting point for us to have
really good bean production
in Zacatecas.” Zacatecas is a
state in central Mexico.
“Definitely, yes,” said
Abelardo Carrera when asked
whether the visit would result
in his customers buying Idaho
seed.
The in-bound trade mission
Sean Ellis/Capital Press
Representatives of Mexico’s dry bean industry inspect pinto beans at Treasure Valley Seed Co.’s
production facility in Homedale, Idaho, on Sept. 4. Participants in the in-bound trade mission said they
were impressed with the quality of Idaho bean seed.
‘These folks understand the huge potential here ... As they
have to feed more mouths, they need more production and
that takes better seed.’
— Don Tolmie
Idaho Bean Commission, board member
was hosted by the Idaho Bean
Commission, which has con-
ducted several field trials in
Mexico over the past several
years to try to show growers
there the benefits of using cer-
tified Idaho seed.
Because of the positive re-
sults of those trials, Mexican
bean industry leaders wanted
to see first-hand the quality
control measures that are in
place to ensure Idaho seed is
disease-free, said Armando
Orellana, director of Idaho’s
trade office in Mexico.
“The trials are starting to
pay off,” said Orellana, who
accompanied the visitors on
the trade mission. “I’m very
pleased to see how they are re-
acting and to see the intentions
they expressed to us. They
have been able to see what
they can achieve by buying
seed from Idaho,”
Dry beans are indigenous
to the southern regions of
Mexico and it’s a tall order
to try to expand into those ar-
eas, said IBC board member
Don Tolmie.
But because of the strong
breeding and production sys-
tems in place in Idaho, “our
varieties are superior to their
indigenous varieties and they
are very impressed with what
they see when they come up
here as far as production,” he
said.
The strong U.S. dollar vs.
the Mexican peso will make
it tough to do a lot of busi-
ness right now, Tolmie said,
but visits like this will pay
off over time because they’re
seeing first-hand that some of
the newer varieties used in
Idaho are doubling or tripling
yields.
“These folks understand
the huge potential here,” he
said. “As they have to feed
more mouths, they need more
production and that takes bet-
ter seed.”
State report tracks economic, demographic
change in rural Oregon as population grows
By ERIC MORTENSON
Capital Press
Online
The “Timber Belt” run-
ning from Northern California
up through Oregon and into
Washington sustained an eco-
nomic collapse and population
loss similar to the “Rust Belt”
and “Corn Belt” of the Mid-
west, but its recovery has been
entirely different, according to
the Oregon Office of Econom-
ic Analysis.
In a new report on demo-
graphic and economic trends
unfolding in rural Oregon,
state analysts detail pockets of
resurgence, surprisingly hope-
ful statistics and unanswered
questions of what comes next.
“All along the Timber Belt,
people keep moving in” at a
pace just as strong as the mi-
gration to urban centers such
as Portland, state economists
Mark McMullen and Joshua
Lehner wrote.
“In general, these incoming
migrants are different than the
households moving out,” the
analysts wrote. “Much of the
time they are older and relocate
to rural Oregon as they retire or
reduce their work hours.”
The new residents of rural
Oregon bring a “lifetime of
experience” and wealth, “often
in the form of California home
equity,” McMullen and Lehner
wrote.
“Figuring out how best
to exploit the Timber Belt’s
strong influx of retirees should
be a top priority given such in-
See the Rural Oregon analysis at https : //oregoneconomicanaly-
sis.files.wordpress.com/2015/08/rural-oregon-2015.pdf
dividuals are voting with their
feet, in essence, saying they
want to live in the area and be
a part of the community,” the
analysts said. “Overall this is
certainly a good thing.”
Rural Oregon loses popu-
lation during the “root setting”
years of ages 25 to 34, when
young adults are establishing
careers, starting families and
buying homes, the report said.
Unlike most of rural America,
however, Oregon is offsetting
those losses with older mi-
grants.
But for the young adults
who stay in rural Oregon, Mc-
Mullen and Lehner said statis-
tics show children raised in ru-
ral Oregon, especially Eastern
Oregon, have a good chance of
succeeding in life.
Harvard University’s Equal-
ity of Opportunity Project
found that a rural Oregon child
born at the bottom income
level had a strong probability
of reaching the top level as an
adult, the authors said. Among
more than 700 communities
nationwide, the Oregon towns
of Burns, Condon, Enterprise,
John Day and Lakeview were
among the top third in fostering
such success, according to Mc-
Mullen and Lehner.
Bruce Weber, director of
the Rural Studies Program at
Oregon State University, said
the state analysis is “insight-
ful.”
If the “boom and bust” na-
ture of rural economies “cre-
ates an environment in which
children grow up with differ-
ent expectations and different
levels of investment in educa-
tion, these could also reduce
upward mobility,” Weber said
in an email.
Meanwhile, economic re-
covery in Oregon has pockets
of success and stagnation.
While Portland and its sub-
urbs are popping again, most
of rural Oregon has not recov-
ered the jobs lost in the reces-
sion, the authors said. An ex-
ception is the Columbia River
Gorge, which the analysts said
has benefited from three major
trends.
First, agriculture remains
strong, mainly fruit, and higher
commodity prices helped local
farmers. Second, wind farm
construction provided invest-
ment and jobs from 2007 to
2011, which included the depth
of the recession. Last, the un-
manned aerial vehicle industry
— drones — has grown dra-
matically over the past decade.
Insitu, a major drone manufac-
turer, is headquartered in Bin-
gen, Wash., across the Colum-
bia from Hood River.
“A large portion of such
jobs are on the Washington
side of the Columbia River,
however the economic and
population base in the gorge
is on the Oregon side, where
much of the consumer spend-
ing occurs,” McMullen and
Lehner wrote.
Although not cited by name
in the state report, Hermiston,
in Umatilla County, rode out
the recession to become the
biggest and fastest growing
city in Eastern Oregon.
In Hermiston’s case, a
strong agricultural sector is a
stabilizing base for the econ-
omy, City Manager Byron
Smith said.
“However you want to
phrase it, people still need to
have food,” he said. “A lot of
our economy is based on that,
either the actual production or
the processing of agricultural
products.”
Hermiston farmers grow
potatoes, onions, melons and
multiple types of other irri-
gated vegetables. The area has
several food processing plants,
and attracted a DuPont Pioneer
corn seed research station.
Finally, the city diversified
its economy through growth in
the transportation and logistics
sector. Wal-Mart has a distri-
bution center in Hermiston,
and FedEx and UPS also have
facilities in the area.
“That’s another piece of
the economy that does well for
us,” Smith said.
YAKIMA, Wash. — Gilbert
Orchards Inc. of Yakima have
been fined $105,000 by the
state Department of Labor &
Industries for what the depart-
ment says are 12 serious and re-
peat-serious health violations.
Gilbert Orchards cooperat-
ed with L&I, feels the fine is
“egregious” and is appealing it,
said Sean Gilbert, the orchard
owner’s son.
A state inspection began in
March after the department re-
ceived information that employ-
ees were hand-applying a pesti-
cide used to kill gophers, called
Fumitoxin, without the right
respirators or training, the de-
partment said in a news release.
Fumitoxin is a restricted-use
pesticide that contains alumi-
num phosphide which reacts
with water to release a high-
ly-toxic phosphine gas that can
be deadly, the department said.
The inspection found work-
ers applied toxic pellets by
hand, sprinkling them in go-
pher holes and adding water to
activate the poison while wear-
ing the wrong respiratory pro-
tection, L&I said.
Employers who use restrict-
ed-use pesticides must ensure
workers are trained to properly
use respirators and must test for
tight fit, L&I said. Employers
must also post warning signs in
treated areas, monitor the work
being done and meet other re-
quirements.
“When L&I made us aware
of the issue, we took very swift
action in concert with L&I,”
Gilbert said.
It was a matter of not being
aware of requirements regard-
ing respirators and the compa-
ny moved quickly to address
that, he said. The fine relates to
procedural matters and paper-
work, he said.
“We are very surprised L&I
put out a press release on a case
we feel is still in progress,” Gil-
bert said. “We provided work-
ers with the correct gloves. No
one was sick or injured.
“We want our workers to
be the safest in the industry.
We’ve had a long history of a
safe working environment and
still do. But L&I felt the need
to apply fines that we feel are
egregious in this case.”
Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press
Ryan Seely wore a beard of succulents at the recent Farwest Show in
Portland, Ore. More than 6,000 people attended the 2015 trade show.
Farwest Show attendance
climbs 10 percent this year
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
The 10 percent boost in at-
tendance at the Oregon nursery
industry’s Farwest Show this
year bodes well for ornamen-
tal plant sales, according to the
event’s organizer.
More than 6,000 people
attended the 2015 trade show,
which seeks to connect whole-
sale producers of nursery stock
with retailers and other buyers.
“I think it’s a further indi-
cator the nursery industry is
recovering,” said Jeff Stone,
executive director of the Ore-
gon Association of Nurseries,
which organizes the annual
event.
Last year, Oregon nursery
sales grew 11 percent to $830
million, according to the Ore-
gon Department of Agriculture.
Oregon’s favorable grow-
ing conditions have allowed
the nursery industry to capital-
ize on increased demand, said
Stone.
Nursery producers in the
state also didn’t cut back on
production as much as growers
elsewhere, putting them in a
better position as the economy
improved, he said.
“Oregon product is moving.
There are shortages in the mar-
ketplace,” said Stone.
Rising revenues are the
result of larger consumption
rather than increased prices,
with demand growing due to
the housing market’s recovery
and greater yard investments
by homeowners, he said.
The market is even on the
upswing for the beleaguered
shade tree sector, which was
particularly hard hit when res-
idential construction plummet-
ed, he said.
The industry has general-
ly become more flexible, with
retailers repeatedly making
orders throughout the year as
their inventory decreases, rath-
er than buying large amounts of
stock at once, Stone said.
Nursery producers also
re-oriented to focus on new-
ly-popular products, such as
food-producing trees, shrubs,
perennials and annuals, he said.
“It’s about trying to antici-
pate that demand,” he said.
The Farwest Show remains
an important financial compo-
nent of the Oregon Association
of Nurseries, which derives
roughly one-third of its reve-
nues from the annual event.
That’s down from about
half of its revenues before the
recession, as the association
has diversified to include other
sources of income, Stone said.
OAN tries not to be overly
reliant on membership dues,
keeping them at about one-third
to one-fourth of its budget, he
said. Instead, the group has be-
gun offering more fee services,
such as insurance and fuel pro-
grams.
While the Farwest Show is a
major revenue stream, it’s also
expensive to produce.
Not only does the event
require a lot of staff time, but
renting the Oregon Convention
Center isn’t cheap, said Stone.
The location is great for
OAN due to its ability to ac-
commodate large events, he
said. “Because of our size,
we’re fairly limited on where
we can go.”