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18 CapitalPress.com February 17, 2017 2016 meat exports end on strong demand By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press Strong exports of U.S. beef and pork in December topped off a year of steady growth, according to the U.S. Meat Ex- port Federation. Shipments of beef in De- cember were the largest ever for December and the largest monthly beef exports since July 2013. At 116,847 metric tons, they were up 22,261 metric tons, or 24 percent, over De- cember 2015 and accounted for 15.6 percent of U.S. pro- duction. At $619.1 million the value of those exports in- creased $111.1 million, or 22 percent. Pork shipments in Decem- ber were up 18 percent and 34,225 metric tons year over year to 222,635 metric tons. The value of those exports in- creased $95.9 million, or 20 percent, to $564.2 million. A strong December put the finishing touch on healthy per- formance in 2016. Demand from Mexico and China and Hong Kong led the way for increased pork exports, while the Asian markets drove the growth in beef exports, USMEF reported. Pork exports reached a re- cord 2.31 million metric tons in 2016, up 8 percent year over year and 2 percent above the previous record of 2.26 million metric tons in 2012. Value in- creased 7 percent to $5.94 bil- lion. Export value per head slaughtered averaged $50.20, up 4 percent, from 2015. “A remarkable second half pushed 2016 pork export vol- ume to Mexico to its fifth con- secutive record at 730,316 met- ric tons – breaking the previous record by 2 percent. Export value to Mexico totaled $1.36 billion, up 7 percent year-over- year and the second-highest on record, trailing only the $1.56 billion mark reached in 2014,” USMEF reported. “At this time of record-large pork production, it would be hard to overstate the impor- tance of Mexican demand to the U.S. industry,” said Philip Seng, USMEF president and CEO. “This is especially true for hams, as we are locked out of Russia — once a large desti- nation for U.S. hams — and China’s demand for imported hams has moderated in recent months,” he said. Despite that moderated de- mand, pork shipments to China and Hong Kong set a new vol- ume record of 544,943 metric tons, up 61 percent, and broke the $1 billion mark for the first time at $1.07 billion, up 53 per- cent. Beef exports for the year were up 11 percent to 1.19 million metric tons. Value only increased 1 percent to $6.34 billion. Shipments accounted for 13.7 percent of U.S. pro- duction. Export value per head slaughtered averaged $262.17, down 6 percent from 2015. “Driven by strong demand for higher-value chilled cuts, beef exports achieved new val- ue records in South Korea and Taiwan in 2016, and rebounded strongly in Japan,” USMEF re- ported. “In addition to the strength of the U.S. dollar, U.S. beef overcame other severe chal- lenges in these north Asian markets and achieved remark- able results,” Seng said. “Despite facing higher tar- iff rates in Japan compared to Australian beef, U.S. beef dis- placed its competition and won back significant market share. And the investment the U.S. industry made to rebuild con- sumer confidence in Korea is paying tremendous dividends,” he said. Beekeeper develops ‘smart bee’ winter storage system By CAROL RYAN DUMAS Capital Press TWIN FALLS, Idaho – A love of bees and an entrepre- neurial spirit have driven one Southern Idaho beekeeper to tackle storage issues that take a huge toll on the pollinators every winter. Designing “smart bee storage” to revolutionize the industry has been a labor of love for Israel Bravo for the past 15 years – and it appears it’s an idea whose time has come, given the success of a prototype facility this winter. Bravo had looked for a system that could depend- ably control the climate in a storage facility to keep bees healthy during their winter re- prieve from pollinating crops and producing honey for hu- man consumption. He finally found it in the expertise at Agri-Stor, a Twin Falls company that has been designing potato cellars for 60 years. “I figured I would find that brain to control everything inside, but I didn’t think I’d find it in my backyard,” Bra- vo said. Large commercial bee- keepers park their bees in po- tato cellars all along Idaho’s I-84 corridor every winter, but Agri-Stor had no expertise in bees. It did, however, have en- gineers who could design Bravo’s smart bee facility. Its owner, Eric Evans, had al- ready developed the “brains” Bravo needed to be able to monitor storage facilities re- motely – and he was able to see Bravo’s vision. Carol Ryan Dumas/Capital Press Israel Bravo, bee storage consultant with Agri-Stor in Twin Falls, looks at a specimen to check for nosema ceranae spores at his office on Feb. 1. Bee boxes are loaded onto semi trucks for transport to California almond orchards. Bravo and Agri-Stor teamed up a year ago to de- sign a building that would control temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide levels and allow for smart phone moni- toring to keep those condi- tions stable, alert the beekeep- er to any problems and give the bees the quiet and the to- tal darkness they need to stay healthy. With off-site monitoring, “you don’t have to disturb the bees. You want to keep things as quiet and dark as possible until it’s time to go to work,” he said. With almond orchards calling, that time has come — and the results look prom- ising. Bees are coming out of storage healthier than they would in conventional stor- age. Frames are fuller, the bees are livelier and there’s more honey reserve to nourish them, he said. “They’re in better condi- tion for traveling to California orchards,” Bravo said. Perhaps the biggest mea- sure of success is the death rate is only 6 to 7 percent, compared to 20 to 40 percent in conventional storage. There are fewer stress- ors than in conventional po- tato-cellar storage, which doesn’t do an adequate job of controlling climate, noise and lighting and builds up mold and pesticides in dirt floors, he said. Courtesy of University of Idaho Matt Roth, left, the new greenhouse manager for the University of Idaho’s nuclear potato seed program, and the program’s manager, Jenny Durrin, work on mini-tuber production. Durrin was recently hired and Roth was recently made full-time, and UI has plans to expand the program’s production. UI to grow nuclear potato seed program By JOHN O’CONNELL Capital Press MOSCOW, Idaho — Uni- versity of Idaho has hired a new director for its nuclear seed potato program and plans to build additional facilities to help her expand production. The planned investments — which include construction of a new greenhouse and labo- ratory — would move the uni- versity toward its long-term goal of becoming a national repository for potato germ- plasm. Jenny Durrin filled the di- rector position vacated when Lorie Ewing retired last July. She conducted research in po- tato virus Y resistance in com- mon Idaho cultivars while obtaining her master’s degree in plant science under UI vi- rologist Alex Karasev, and she spent two years studying pale cyst nematode at the univer- sity. UI also promoted a part- time worker, Matt Roth, to be the program’s full-time green- house manager. The self-sufficient nucle- ar seed program maintains more than 300 potato cross- es — including experimental lines, public and private va- rieties and the Potato Variety Management Institute’s entire collection. The program also produces disease-free tissue cultures and pre-nuclear seed for seed growers, representing the first step in potato produc- tion. Mark McGuire, director of the Idaho Agricultural Ex- periment Station, hopes the greenhouse will be complete by mid-summer to produce a fall crop. He said the program currently can’t keep up with orders. “The seed potato produc- tion is limited by the green- house space,” McGuire said. “We’re looking to really dou- ble the capacity.” State offers 3,000-acre lease in Horse Heaven Hills By DAN WHEAT Wine packaging competition getting keener By DAN WHEAT Capital Press KENNEWICK, Wash. — Global competition continues to impact quality, pricing and availability of wine bottles, says one of the largest wine packaging suppliers in North America. New suppliers are in the game, traditional channels continue to change and some long-standing manufacturers are selling direct, says Andrew Bottene, senior vice president of TricorBraun WinePak in St. Louis, Mo. Industry shifts can be confusing for customers but TricorBraun WinePak reaf- firms its position as a suppli- er of value, Bottene said in a Feb. 3 news release. “As our industry’s lead- ing wine bottle distributor, we have watched the industry grow and evolve, as we have continued to focus our efforts on delivering unique custom packing solutions for our many customers,” he said. The company, a subsidi- ary of TricorBraun, has more than $150 million in annu- al sales and a $2 million, 360,000-square-foot automat- ed repacking plant in Fair- field, Calif., where it repack- Dan Wheat/Capital Press Suzanne Fenton, vice president of brand marketing, TricorBraun WinePak of St. Louis, Mo., at a company bottle display during the Washington Winegrowers meeting in Kennewick, Wash., on Feb. 7. The company offers more than 900 sizes and styles of wine bottles. ages bottles it sources from around the world. TricorBraun WinePak has been one of the hundreds of vendors at the Washington Winegrowers Association an- nual meeting in Kennewick for the past 10 years. At this year meeting, Feb. 7-9, Suzanne Fenton, vice president of brand marketing of TricorBraun WinePak, told Capital Press the company’s outlook is still good because it provides useful one-stop shopping for wineries for bot- tles, caps, capsules and car- tons. The company offers more than 900 styles and sizes of bottles, custom designs bot- tles and competes with 30 to 40 wine bottle suppliers west of the Rockies, Fenton said. Bag-in-box packaging for wine has increased in the last several years, beginning with bulk wines and moving into higher-end wines, she said. Generally, medium and small- er-size wineries are sticking with bottles, she said. TricorBraun WinePak sells some bag-in-box but far more bottles, she said. Bag-in-box has been “a cost savings and a way to mar- ket wines to a larger audience including people who want to have wine on hand to serve at parties that was not the focus of the evening,” Fenton said. “It’s an easy way to have a glass or two at a time and not worry about the wine losing tastiness once a cork is re- moved,” she said. Bag-in-box was developed and used before bottle screw caps took hold to secure tast- iness, she said. Fenton attends about 10 trade shows a year, including United Wine & Grape Sympo- sium in Sacramento and Ore- gon Wine Symposium in Port- land. It’s a means of gaining new customers and touching base with existing customers to make sure they are getting the products and service they need. TricorBraun, the parent company, is one of the world’s leading suppliers of bottles, jars and other rigid packaging components with annual sales approaching $1 billion and more than 41 locations in the United States, Canada, Mexi- co, Asia and Europe. McGuire said UI is in the early stages of planning and estimating costs of a new building to accommodate the nuclear seed program’s labo- ratory, as well as office space for marketing UI cereal and oilseed varieties. UI plans to approach commodity groups and industry partners for fi- nancial support and hopes to start construction of the build- ing some time after July 2018. As a national reposito- ry, Durrin said her program would maintain USDA variet- ies and add 20 new lines per year on average from potato breeding programs through- out the U.S. Most U.S. potato lines are now stored at a Colo- rado laboratory, where they’re frozen cryogenically, a stor- age method that significantly lengthens propagation time. Durrin said UI’s plans for a national potato seed bank have “been put on hold, but we’ll be moving forward with it in the future.” Roth, who served a tour of duty with the Air Force in Afghanistan before enrolling at UI, plans to start gradu- ate school in the fall. His research will involve testing the feasibility of using hy- droponics in the program. He explained with no soil, mini-tubers can be removed as they reach the ideal size for growers, many of whom have requested smaller, more uniform seed. A continuous harvest, however, poses challenges as seed stored for longer periods behaves differently than new- er seed. Roth plans to research how exposing newer seed to warmer storage conditions may accelerate its aging, as a tool to homogenize hydropon- ic seed of varying ages. He’s already tested a small-scale hydroponic system he devel- oped and plans to try out a larger system this season. Capital Press PATERSON, Wash. — The state Department of Natural Resources is seeking bidders to lease approximately 3,000 acres of agricultural land in Horse Heaven Hills between Paterson and Prosser. The offering is unique for its size, atypical lease struc- ture and the availability of 3.9 acre-feet of non-interrupt- ible Columbia River water per acre, according to a DNR news release. Bids are due April 6. The site is within 27 miles of processing facilities and distribution centers in Prosser and within 40 miles of facili- ties in the Tri-Cities. The lease offering is un- usual in that DNR is looking for the winning bidder to con- struct a system to deliver the water to the land. To that end, the agency will allow propos- als with rental terms designed to reimburse the winning bidder’s investment, such as a long-term lease of up to 35 years and reduced rates. DNR is looking for the ap- plicant’s ability to perfect the agency’s water rights, finan- cial capabilities, plus environ- mental considerations such as use for organic crops or pres- ervation of shrub-steppe as wildlife habitat. “We know this is not a typ- ical agricultural land lease, but we also know that access to prime irrigated farmland is valuable. We want applicants to be creative and propose what can work for them, and us,” says DNR Southeast Re- gion Manager Todd Welker. “We’ve done a lot of work up- front. We think this approach will preserve a valuable water right, generate revenue for public beneficiaries and pen- cil out for someone.” To reduce risk, the agen- cy has negotiated agreements and rights of way for the wa- ter supply system. It’s also providing water pipeline and pump station engineering drawings, electrical drawings and a project cost estimate of $11 million. DNR is pitching the land as suitable for row crops, ap- ples, mint, blueberries and wine grapes. It is within the Horse Heaven Hills American Viticultural Area. Upon full development and perfection of the water right, a minimum of 250 acres of orchard, vine- yard or berries is expected, DNR says. Some of the land has grown dryland wheat, and that could be continued until the water system is developed, said Carrie McCausland, DNR spokeswoman. DNR has owned it a long time and leased it in smaller segments and now wants to develop the water right before it expires in a couple of years, she said.
