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January 20, 2017 CapitalPress.com 3 Blueberry farmers face price stress, expert says Low-cost producers best positioned to survive turmoil By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press SALEM — With global blueberry production climb- ing, farmers should focus on improving effi ciencies rather than hoping for prices to rise, according to an industry expert. “If you’re the lowest-cost producer, you will survive whatever kind of price stress we have in this industry,” said John Shelford, strategic advis- er to the Naturipe Farms food company, at the Jan. 16 Oregon Blueberry Conference. Cold storage inventories of frozen blueberries have mount- ed in recent years, depressing prices for the processed crop, he said. In 2016, the amount of fro- zen blueberries leftover from Mateusz Perkowski/Capital Press John Shelford, strategic adviser for Naturipe Farms. the previous year’s harvest hit 145 million pounds in the U.S., up from 51 million pounds just fi ve years earlier, according to USDA. Frozen inventories will like- ly grow to 160 million pounds before this year’s blueberries enter cold storage, said Shel- ford. “I do not see any improve- ment in pricing for the 2017 harvest.” Courtesy of Oregon State University Blueberries ripen in the field. John Shelford, strategic adviser for Naturipe Farms, said farmers will need to produce blue- berries more efficiently as rising production depresses prices. Shelford spoke at the Oregon Blueberry Conference in Salem, Ore., on Jan. 16. Shelford projects that annu- al blueberry production in the U.S. and Canada will increase by roughly one-third, from 1.2 billion pounds to 1.6 billion pounds over the next decade. Farmers can’t depend on domestic consumption of the crop to grow proportionate- ly and will have to ship more blueberries overseas to keep prices stable, he said. “We can’t take our eye off the export business,” he said. Niche markets offer an op- portunity for growers but they don’t have a lot of “elasticity,” Shelford said. For example, the market for organic blueberries — a rela- tively large niche — can easily be overwhelmed by excessive tonnage, causing prices to col- lapse, he said. Surplus organic blueberries are actually better off being sold in the conventional market to avoid affecting organic pric- es, he said. The average number of cal- ories consumed per capita in the U.S. is effectively fl at at about 2,500 calories per day, and the share represented by whole fruits actually decreased in recent years across several demographics, Shelford said. “If you eat more blueber- ries, you’re going to displace something else. It’s really a ze- ro-sum game,” he said. New blueberry plantings have slowed in North America and Chile, but farmers have still been enthusiastically commit- ting new acreage to the crop in China, South Africa, Peru and Mexico, said Cort Brazelton, who heads business develop- ment at Fall Creek Farm and Nursery and tracks global blue- berry production. Mexico is in a strong posi- tion to supply “counterseason- al” fresh blueberries to U.S. consumers, since the country can ship its crop to the U.S. much faster than Chile, a prom- inent counterseasonal producer, Brazelton said. Expansion of blueberry acreage in Peru is occurring in conjunction with overall agri- cultural growth in that country, which is tied to the construction of major irrigation projects, he said. “If it grows in Peru, they’re planting it like crazy,” Bra- zelton said. While North America remains an important desti- nation for South American blueberries, producers on that continent are increasingly shipping more fruit to Euro- pean and Asian markets, he said. Merkley: Owyhee Canyonland monument designation unlikely By ERIC MORTENSON Online Capital Press Capital Press FIle A sign posted in Jordan Valley opposes the Owyhee Canyonlands National Monument in Malheur County, Ore. Jordan Valley is nearly surrounded by the proposed monument. U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., says he’s been told President Barack Obama will not create the monument. Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley said he’s been told there are no plans to designate an Owyhee Canyonlands national monu- ment in the remaining days of the Obama administration. In an interview with Oregon Public Broadcasting, Merkley said Department of Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told him and fellow Oregon Sen. Ron Wyden that plans to designate a monument have been put aside. “The secretary was very clear in the conversations that both Senator Wyden and I had that they were not prepared to act,” Merkley told OPB. “So it was set aside,” he added, “and I have a feeling it will be set aside for quite a OPB’s report: http://www.opb. org/news/article/owyhee-mon- ument-no-monument-merkley/ while.” The Owyhee Basin Stew- ardship Coalition, a group of Malheur County residents or- ganized to oppose the designa- tion, reacted cautiously. “While this news is prom- ising, it doesn’t mean that it’s time to stop making our voice heard,” the group said in an email statement. “Until Pres- ident Obama leaves offi ce ... we’re in the danger zone for a monument declaration. Re- member: President Clinton named eight new monuments in his fi nal three days.” The Bend-based environ- mental group Oregon Natural Desert Association, backed by the Keen Footwear company of Portland, proposed the 2.5 million-acre Owyhee Canyon- lands wilderness and conser- vation area. Ranchers and other Mal- heur County residents are dead set against it. “Not only no, but hell no,” as prominent rancher Bob Skinner told the Capital Press in 2016. The proposed area was bigger than either the Yel- lowstone, Yosemite or Grand Canyon national parks, critics pointed out, and would cover 40 percent of Malheur County. Residents believe designation would be accompanied by re- strictions and regulations that would prohibit or severely complicate grazing, mining, hunting and recreation. Sup- porters of the monument said traditional activities would be allowed, but Skinner and oth- ers said they don’t believe en- vironmentalists. Presidents have authority under the federal Antiquities Act to unilaterally designate national monuments, and Obama has used it several times. Most recently, he add- ed 48,000 acres to the Cas- cade-Siskiyou National Monu- ment in Southern Oregon. At the recent American Farm Bureau Federation annu- al convention, delegates voted in favor of revoking a presi- dent’s authority to designate such conservation areas. They said Congress should have that authority. Ranchers dread effects of Cascade-Siskiyou monument expansion Area in detail Original monument boundary Newly expanded boundary 140 Medford 238 99 5 Sis kiyo Ashland tns. u M 66 r Cattle groups reacted with dread at the expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou Na- tional Monument in Oregon and California, which they fear will gradually eradicate ranching in the area. The Obama administration announced Jan. 12 the mon- ument will be increased by about 49,000 acres, up about 80 percent from its current 62,000 acres. While the federal govern- ment touted the decision as improving “vital habitat con- nectivity, watershed protec- tion, and landscape-scale re- silience for the area’s unique biological values,” cattle groups fear it marks the be- ginning of the end of ranching in the expanded monument. “They start out OK, but pretty soon the restrictions start coming in,” said Bob Skinner, an Oregon rancher and vice president of the Pub- Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument expansion ive Capital Press Ore. N R Ore. Calif. th By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Kl a m a 5 Calif. 10 miles Alan Kenaga/Capital Press lic Lands Council, which rep- resents grazing interests. Ranchers with grazing allotments aren’t allowed to properly maintain fences, wa- ter structures and other range improvements, diminishing the land’s suitability for graz- ing, Skinner said. That dynamic has already been seen on the original por- tion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument, which many ranchers have left since its designation in 2000, he said. “You can’t bother any- thing, you have to leave it in a natural state,” Skinner said. As private ranch properties are sold or passed down to new generations, the federal government does not have to honor grazing agreements on adjacent public land, said Je- rome Rosa, executive director of the Oregon Cattlemen’s Association. “Over time, all the grazing is eliminated,” Rosa said. As gates to public land are closed and roads fall into dis- repair, private property sur- rounded by a national monu- ment decreases in value until ranchers have little choice but to sell it to the federal govern- ment, he said. “There’s no value any- more,” Rosa said, noting that as property is taken off local tax rolls, county services are also reduced. “It’s really an abuse of power.” Not only does the land within the expanded monu- ment offer excellent pastures for cattle, but it also contains old growth forests and wild- life habitat, he said. “Without it being grazed, it will be just a lightning strike away from a huge fi re,” Rosa said. “It’s really tragic.” 3-4/#17 WE SPECIALIZE IN BULK BAGS! 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! 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