July 8, 2016 CapitalPress.com 5 USDA buys up more surplus cranberries Large inventory remains, depressing prices By DON JENKINS Capital Press The U.S. Department of Agriculture will spend $27.5 million on cranberry concen- trate, buying a fraction of the surplus berries that are sup- pressing prices. The purchase of the val- ue-added product will soak up 30 million pounds, or 300,000 barrels, of cranberries, accord- ing to the industry’s Cranberry Marketing Committee, which announced the purchase in a press release June 29. Don Jenkins/Capital Press Workers drag cranberries in from a bog during a harvest Sept. 23, 2015, on the Long Beach Peninsula in Washington. The U.S. De- partment of Agriculture will spend $27.5 million to soak up surplus cranberries and support prices. “We’re pleased to hear that. Certainly when you have an inventory of 7 million barrels, it’s nice to have some help getting rid of that,” Washing- ton cranberry grower Malcolm McPhail said July 1. Total U.S. production in 2015 was about 8.4 million barrels, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. The cranberry surplus has hovered around 90 percent in recent years, swelled partly by a bumper crop of nearly 9 mil- lion barrels in 2013. Farmers have seen prices fall every year since 2009. The average price growers received in 2014 was $30.90 per 100-pound barrel. The USDA was due to issue a re- port later this week on the 2015 crop. “Any sale of cranberries helps our growers,” Ocean Spray cooperative spokes- woman Kellyanne Dignan said. “From our perspective, we ap- preciate the USDA’s attention to the cranberry industry.” The USDA purchases sur- plus food to stabilize prices under a program created during the Depression. The govern- ment distributes the food to schools and charities. The USDA has been a reg- ular customer for cranberry farmers. The purchases includ- ed buying 680,000 barrels for $55 million around Thanksgiv- ing 2014. A bipartisan group of federal lawmakers from the fi ve cranberry-producing states lobbied for the purchase. “We are grateful for the con- tinued support of the USDA and appreciate the positive impact that this bonus buy has on our industry,” the marketing committee’s executive director, Michelle Hogan, said in a writ- ten statement. A Massachusetts task force in mid-June made several rec- ommendations to help that state’s cranberry growers. The recommendations in- cluded providing grants, tax credits and low-interest loans to farmers to renovate bogs and increase yields. Other recommendations called for programs to pay farmers to convert bogs to wet- lands to reduce production. Cranberries are the top farm crop in Massachusetts, the country’s second-leading cran- berry producer. Washington, the fi fth-lead- ing cranberry state after No. 3 New Jersey and No. 4 Or- egon, has 1,700 acres planted to cranberries. “I think ev- erybody is hanging in there,” McPhail said. Ukraine and Romania hungry for U.S. agricultural investment Oregon ag director Katy Coba returns from trade mission U.S. ag exports to Ukraine and Romania $81.3 million: Up 59% from 2014 354 321 Ukraine Romania 282 By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Bureau 194 174 155 96 94 69 215 72 BELARUS POLAND $75.3 million: Down 52% from 2014 (Millions of dollars) Ukraine and Romania are hungry for U.S. investment in grain storage, irrigation and other agricultural infrastruc- ture, said Oregon Department of Agriculture Director Katy Coba. Major U.S. companies are best poised to immediately take advantage of opportuni- ties in Ukraine and Romania due to their expertise working in foreign nations, said Coba, who recently returned from a trade mission to the two coun- tries. In the future, though, there may be greater openings for Area in detail Kiev D Lviv SLOVAKIA ’07 ’08 Source: USDA FAS ’09 ROMANIA 55 47 ’11 Kharkiv R iv er 51 Odessa Sea of Azov ’12 ’13 ’14 Bucharest 2015 BULGARIA Sevastopol Black Sea N 100 miles Source: CIA World Factbook The USDA led a trade mission of state agriculture offi cials and agribusiness rep- resentatives to Ukraine and Romania on June 13-17, after which Coba visited Croatia with her two daughters. A major challenge for U.S. RUSSIA CRIMEAN PENINSULA Mateusz Perkowski and Alan Kenaga/Capital Press Oregon farm exports to the Eastern European countries, particularly as they need more high-quality seed, she said. “If democracry continues to grow, those are markets for us to keep our eye on,” Coba said. er MOL. 89 ’10 ep Donetsk 157 SERBIA 2006 ni UKRAINE HUNGARY 174 53 Chernobyl farm exports to the two coun- tries is transportation — air freight is expensive, while ships must take a meandering route through the Mediter- ranean and Black seas, she said. Alan Kenaga/Capital Press “It’s quite a truck for our stuff,” Coba said. The U.S. shipped $321 million worth of farm goods to Ukraine in 2013, but that amount had plummeted more than 75 percent by last year, according to USDA trade data. “The Ukrainian economy collapsed after the overthrow of their president in 2014,” Coba said. That year, Ukraine’s par- liament ousted the nation’s Russian-backed president, Viktor Yanukovych, leading to Russia’s invasion of its Crimea region and confl icts along its eastern border. During the trade mission in Ukraine, U.S. offi cials toured a grain facility owned by Ar- cher Daniels Midland and par- ticipated in the opening cere- mony for an oilseed crushing facility built for nearly $300 million by Bunge. Ukraine has insuffi cient infrastructure for irrigation, storage and processing of crops, so the nation is looking for American help to expand its production capacity, Coba said. Wolf delisting lawsuit against Oregon reinstated By KRISTENA HANSEN Associated Press PORTLAND, Ore. — The Oregon Court of Appeals has decided to reconsider a lawsuit against the state that was dis- missed a couple months ago over its decision last year to remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list. It means environmentalists will have another chance to ar- gue for an independent, judicial review of the delisting decision — as well as challenge the va- lidity of House Bill 4040, one of the Legislature’s most contro- versial new laws this year that ultimately led to the case’s dis- missal in late April. “The issues presented by this judicial review and by HB 4040 are complex matters of public importance,” Judge Erika Hadlock wrote in the court’s de- cision Tuesday. “Without decid- ing what, if any, effect HB 4040 has on this judicial review, the court determines that the issues of possible mootness and the validity of HB 4040 are more Courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service A photo taken by trail camera in February shows wandering wolf OR-7 for the fi rst time since his tracking collar quit working in 2015. appropriately decided by a de- partment of the court following full briefi ng.” The controversy stems from the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission’s November de- cision to delist the gray wolf as endangered, a move aimed at managing the species’ replenish- ing population that environmen- talists say was premature and based on questionable science. As environmentalists were asking the court for a review of the delisting decision, some Re- publican lawmakers crafted HB 4040 as a means to block the case. The idea was that, with the Legislature’s stamp of approval that the decision was air-tight according to law, reviewing that decision was a moot point and the case itself, therefore, would be too. The bill was blasted by many residents, conservationists and Democratic leaders, including Oregon Rep. Peter DeFazio, as an overreach by the Legislature into judicial branch matters and therefore potentially unconstitu- tional — an argument environ- mentalists reiterated in court this week. Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum fi led a “notice of probable mootness” soon after HB 4040 was signed into law, prompting the case’s dismissal on those grounds on April 22. Nick Cady, attorney for Eu- gene-based Cascadia Wildlands, which brought the case along with Oregon Wild and the Center for Biological Diversi- ty, said the case was reconsid- ered after they challenged the constitutionality of HB 4040 and the court’s process for dismissing the suit. WE S P E CIA LIZE IN B U LK B AG S! BAGS: • Seed Bags • Fertilizer Bags • Feed Bags • Potato Bags • Printed Bags • Plain Bags • Bulk Bags • Totes • Woven Polypropylene • Bopp • Polyethylene • Pocket Bags • Roll Stock & More! HAY PRESS SUPPORT: • Hay Sleeves • Strap • Totes • Printed or Plain • Stretch Film (ALL GAUGES) WAREHOUSE PACKAGING: • Stretch Film • Pallet Sheets • Pallet Covers LOCATIONS: Albany, Oregon (MAIN OFFICE) Ellensburg, Washington CONTACT INFORMATION: 855-928-3856 Fax: 541-497-6262 info@westernpackaging.com Phone: ....................................................... CUSTOMER SERVICE IS OUR TOP PRIORITY! www.westernpackaging.com 28-4/#5 28-4/#7