FRIDAY, MARCH 24, 2017
VOLUME 90, NUMBER 12
WWW.CAPITALPRESS.COM
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CHINA
BOOSTS APPLE
EXPORTS TO
U.S.
Associated Press File
Chinese farmers harvest apples at an orchard in Eastern China’s Shandong province. The U.S. and China
have opened their doors to each other’s apples. China grows half of the apples in the world.
Capital Press
T
wo years ago, after decades of sparring through
negotiations, the U.S. and China fully opened
their doors to each other’s apples.
What has happened since then was expect-
ed in terms of Washington’s apple shipments
to China, but the rapid growth of China’s shipments to the
U.S. has surprised some in the industry even though it still
represents only a sliver of the market.
For Washington apple companies, the trade deal has had
the desired effect. They have shipped about 1.3 million,
40-pound boxes of apples to China in each of the past two
years.
That’s worth about $26 million a year, and though the
Chinese economy has slowed, Washington apple shippers
“They have a lot of apples.
They doubled exports to Southeast
Asia in one year.”
Desmond O’Rourke, apple market analyst
still hope the most populous nation in the world will one
day grow into a 10 million-box, $200 million market. China
has a large and growing middle class that likes high-quality
Washington apples.
At the same time, however, Chinese apple exports to the
U.S. increased by more than 30 fold, from 6,149, 40-pound
boxes in the 2014-2015 sales season to 192,258 boxes in
2015-2016, according to the USDA Foreign Agricultural
Service.
That’s still less than 2 percent of U.S. apple imports and
WDFW fl oats new way
to count wolf attacks
Capital Press
The Washington Depart-
ment of Fish and Wildlife
suggested March 15 creating
a new category of wolf attacks
on livestock, blurring what’s
now a bright line between
confi rmed and probable dep-
redations.
The new category, called
“qualifying
depredations,”
could change the way WDFW
counts attacks that lead to
culling wolfpacks.
The department’s staff in-
cluded the idea in an 11-page
document presented to WD-
FW’s Wolf Advisory Group in
a conference call.
WDFW wolf policy co-
ordinator Donny Martorello
said the paper refl ected the
staff’s thinking on prevent-
ing and responding to depre-
dations during the upcoming
grazing season.
He said the department
was not making any propos-
als, but wanted to circulate the
thoughts before the advisory
group meets March 29 and 30
in Olympia. “Everything’s on
the table,” Martorello said.
Currently, WDFW’s policy
is to consider shooting wolves
after four confi rmed depreda-
tions.
Depredations
classifi ed
as “probable” don’t count
toward the threshold, even
in cases in which wolves are
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Worries about China
But is it reason for alarm? Could China fl ood the U.S.
with its cheap Fuji apples, as U.S. apple producers feared
years ago?
The answer appears to be no, but O’Rourke says it’s well
worth watching because of China’s ability to rapidly ramp
up its exports. China could “easily double” its apple exports
to the U.S. this year because it is such a tiny portion of its
total exports, he said.
“Being able to sell in high-quality markets such as Eu-
rope, Canada and the U.S. is a matter of pride for them,”
O’Rourke said.
Turn to CHINA, Page 12
Reversal of Oregon’s GMO
pre-emption debated
Opponents argue
local restrictions
create uncertainty
Policy would reduce influence of scavengers, officials say
By DON JENKINS
about one-quarter of 1 percent of overall Chinese apple ex-
ports in 2016, says Desmond O’Rourke, an apple market
analyst and retired Washington State University agricultural
economist who studies China.
By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI
Capital Press
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Washington Department of Fish
and Wildlife wolf policy coordi-
nator Donny Martorello speaks
at a Wolf Advisory Group
meeting Feb. 1 in Olympia.
strongly suspected, but scav-
engers have picked the car-
cass and removed evidence
such as bite marks.
WDFW staff suggested
tallying qualifying depreda-
tions in considering whether
to lethally remove wolves.
Qualifying depredations
Turn to WOLF, Page 12
SALEM — Nearly four
years after barring local
governments from regulat-
ing genetically engineered
crops, Oregon lawmakers
are thinking of reversing
that policy.
The Oregon Legislature
pre-empted all local ordi-
nances over seed in 2013 but
is now considering House
Bill 2469, which would cre-
ate an exception allowing
local restrictions for geneti-
cally engineered crops.
Critics of the bill worry it
will pave the way for outright
bans on genetically modifi ed
crops, or GMOs, such as the
prohibition passed in 2014
by Jackson County voters.
Jackson County’s GMO
ban was allowed to go for-
ward because the initiative
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Capital Press fi le photo
The Oregon Legislature
pre-empted all local ordinanc-
es over seed in 2013 but is
now considering House Bill
2469, which would create
an exception allowing local
restrictions for genetically
engineered crops.
was already on the ballot
when the state pre-emption
policy was enacted.
Barry Bushue, president
of the Oregon Farm Bureau,
said it’s unfortunate that
some people would rather
forbid farmers from grow-
ing certain crops rather than
letting them resolve confl icts
with neighbors amicably.
“I urge you to reject
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the notion that one grower
should be prioritized by the
government over another,”
said Bushue said at a March
16 hearing before the House
Agriculture Committee.
Fewer than 1 percent of
organic farmers have re-
ported losing crop value due
to GMOs and none of them
were in Oregon, Bushue
said, citing a nationwide
USDA survey.
Also, no growers have
taken advantage of a me-
diation program aimed at
resolving confl icts among
conventional, organic and
biotech crops, passed by Or-
egon lawmakers in 2015, he
said.
Steve Strauss, an Oregon
State University professor
who studies biotechnology,
said lawmakers should ask
themselves whether they
want Oregon agriculture to
be known for innovation or
for exclusion.
Scientists are developing
new crops with gene editing,
Turn to GMO, Page 12
12-4/#16
By DAN WHEAT
Washington apple producers
have benefi ted from full varietal
access to China, which is also
stepping up its export game