Capital press., June 16, 2017, Page 12, Image 12

12 CapitalPress.com
June 16, 2017
‘The entire industry will be working to promote the brand’
COSMIC from Page 1
They are the top agricultural
commodity, grossing $2.4 bil-
lion annually. About 65 percent
of the apples grown in the U.S.
come from Washington or-
chards.
For three weeks in April
and May, Anderson laid out
neat rows and hauled trees
and fertilizer, helping his three
workers plant by hand 2,200
Cosmic Crisp trees on a little
over 2 acres. Elsewhere in Cen-
tral Washington, other grow-
ers planted up to 20,000 trees
apiece, mostly by machine.
Anderson is optimistic
about the new apple.
“It’s something being heav-
ily promoted, sounded like it
might be fun. And, yes, I’m
looking for better returns,” said
Anderson, 64, who with his
wife, Sally, runs the orchard.
Anderson tore out Fuji ap-
ple trees last fall to make room
for his Cosmic Crisp.
“Fuji are very late and
I don’t have a long enough
growing season. There have
been years I picked them in the
snow and years they froze on
the trees,” Anderson said.
About the apple
Cosmic Crisp, once known
only by its breeding name, WA
38, is the result of a cross be-
tween Enterprise and Honey-
crisp apples made 20 years ago
by apple breeder Bruce Barritt
and his team at the Washing-
ton State University Tree Fruit
Research and Extension Cen-
ter in Wenatchee. The “parent”
varieties were chosen for their
outstanding fl avor, color, stor-
age ease and resistance to dis-
ease and disorders, according
to Barritt.
His successor, Kate Evans,
says Cosmic Crisp rated “sta-
tistically signifi cantly” better in
consumer tests of its taste and
texture. It has a sweet, tangy
fl avor the industry believes
consumers will like better than
the popular Honeycrisp — and
it’s easier to grow and store.
Carolyn Ross, WSU asso-
ciate professor of food science,
led the naming process in 2014,
settling on Cosmic for the ap-
ple’s lenticels, tiny skin pores
that look like starbursts, and
Crisp, referencing its fi rmness
and relationship to the Honey-
crisp.
Unprecedented plan
Even after the new variety
was developed it took years
before the fi rst commercial or-
chards were planted this spring.
Nurseries had to build up
enough Cosmic Crisp “mother”
trees to provide scion material
for budding onto rootstock. Af-
ter budding, it takes two years
to grow the trees for orchard
planting.
This spring, the fi rst 630,000
Cosmic Crisp trees were plant-
ed. An estimated 5 million trees
will go out during each of the
next two springs.
This rapid roll-out marks a
fi rst for the industry.
“The 5 million is an ex-
tremely high number for any
one variety of apple tree to be
Washington apple plantings
(Percentage of statewide annual plantings by variety)
Variety
2015
2016
2017
2018*
Red Delicious
Golden Delicious
Granny Smith
Jonagold
Gala
Fuji
Braeburn
Cripps Pink
Honeycrisp
Managed †
WA 38 (Cosmic Crisp)
Other
2%
0.6
7.2
1.3
10.8
7.2
0.2
6.1
39.9
21
0
3.7
1.7
0.3
0.8
0.6
14.6
11
0
6.1
35.9
26.5
0
2.6
1.7
0.2
2.8
0.2
9.4
10.6
0.1
8
21.8
34.2
7.5
3.5
0.5
0.4
0.5
0
3.7
3.2
0
1.9
12.5
34.4
40
2.5
NOTE: Percentages may not equal 100 due to rounding.
*Estimate † Managed varieties, also known as club varieties.
Source: Neal Manly, Regal Fruit
planted in any given year in the
state or nationwide,” said Neal
Manly, managing partner of
Regal Fruit, an apple breeding
and variety management com-
pany in Ephrata, Wash.
According to Manly’s sur-
vey of the state’s nurseries,
40 percent of the trees planted
next year will be Cosmic Crisp.
Only Red Delicious and Hon-
eycrisp reached 40 percent of
annual plantings in the past and
Gala peaked at 25 percent.
Newly planted trees pro-
duce few apples in their fi rst
two years, so Anderson and
other growers will knock them
off early so the tree’s energy
will go toward growth.
Lynnell Brandt, president
of Proprietary Variety Manage-
ment, a Yakima, Wash., compa-
ny WSU hired to help manage
the commercialization of Cos-
mic Crisp, estimates that near-
ly 200,000, 40-pound boxes of
Cosmic Crisp apples will debut
in U.S. stores from the 2019
crop. That will jump to 1.9 mil-
lion boxes in 2020, 5 million in
2021 and 9 million in 2022.
At the Washington State
Tree Fruit Association meet-
ing last December, Robert
Kershaw, president of Domex
Superfresh Growers in Yaki-
ma, said such an accelerated
ramp-up has never before been
tried. He called it “insanity”
and a “gamble” that could end
in reward or failure and said it
would take the whole industry
pulling together to write the
Cosmic Crisp success story.
West Mathison, president of
Stemilt Growers in Wenatchee,
said the fastest switch in the
consumption of varieties will
happen over a fi ve-year span
that will “blow people’s hair
back.” In the last two seasons,
prices for Red Delicious and
Gala have crashed because of
too much volume and loss of
consumer popularity.
Brandt anticipates Cos-
mic Crisp will replace large
amounts of Reds and Gala in
Capital Press graphic
relatively short order. Older
strains of Fuji, Golden Deli-
cious, Braeburn, Cameo and
Jonagold and even Honeycrisp
numbers will diminish, he said.
The new mix will be Cos-
mic Crisp and proprietary va-
rieties, along with some Fuji,
Gala, Granny Smith and Hon-
eycrisp.
“We are hopeful Cosmic
Crisp can be the new fl agship
of the industry. We have that
hope because it’s such a good
apple and because the entire
industry will be working to
promote the brand in a very
positive light and the industry
has some exclusivity in the
North American market, which
can enhance the focus,” Brandt
said. Washington growers will
be the sole source of the new
apple in North America for the
fi rst decade.
Kershaw heads a commit-
tee of most of the state’s major
tree fruit companies advising
Brandt on marketing.
“It’s not without confl ict
but confl ict is good to sort out
all the issues and have a good
healthy debate and to make
sure we are looking at every-
thing from all angles and per-
spectives,” Kershaw said.
The committee has reached
a consensus on every main de-
cision, including uniform pack-
aging. Grading standards are
next and will need to be tightly
managed to ensure a successful
launch, he said.
Financial hopes
Honeycrisp is a big mon-
ey-maker for the industry, but
its margins have begun to nar-
row as volume has increased.
It’s common for Honeycrisp to
sell at wholesale in the $50-$70
per box range while most other
unmanaged varieties do well to
reach $30. Break-even for or-
chards is typically about $17 a
box.
For Cosmic Crisp, “the ex-
pectation is Honeycrisp pric-
ing, but the consumer will de-
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Ricardo Santacruz reaches for a Cosmic Crisp limb of buds as
Eduardo Morales gets ready to wrap the bud. They are part of
a crew of 45 budding Cosmic Crisp buds onto rootstock trees at
Willow Drive Nursery near Ephrata, Wash., on Sept. 12, 2016.
cide. If they sell well at high
prices, prices will stay high. If
they don’t, prices will need to
come down to generate more
momentum,” Kershaw said.
Red Delicious, the volume
king for 82 years, peaked at
61.4 million boxes in 1994 but
was still at 39.5 million boxes
this year, almost one-third of
the state’s apple production.
While the volume of Red
Delicious has held up, its price
hasn’t. It was selling for $11
to $14.90 per box for standard
grade, medium size on June
7. In 2014, it bottomed out at
$8 per box. At those prices,
growers make no money and
packer-shipper-marketers, who
get their cut fi rst, make little to
nothing.
Grower costs and packing,
shipping and marketing costs
all vary, but Anderson, the
Manson grower, said on a $30
box of fruit the grower makes
one-third and on a $50 box the
grower can make two-thirds.
Even the popular Honey-
crisp has not performed well
for him.
“I have not done well with
Honeycrisp,” he says. “My
packouts are poor.”
Cosmic Crisp should pro-
vide better returns than Honey-
crisp because production costs
will be lower and storage and
packouts — after cull apples
are taken out — will be better,
Brandt said. He believes the
new apple will top 30 million
boxes annually.
If those numbers hold true
and the price stays high, the
payoff for the industry would
be impressive.
In round numbers, just a 10
million-box crop of Cosmic
Crisp that sells for $30 per box
would gross $300 million; at
$50 per box, the crop would
gross $500 million.
WSU will get a royalty of
4.75 percent of every box that
sells for more than $20. On a
$500 million crop, 4.75 percent
is $23.7 million. There’s also a
$1 royalty on every tree sold for
planting. Trees generally cost
$9, including the royalty. On 10
million trees sold, the royalty is
$10 million.
Of those total royalties,
around 20 percent will go for
commercialization costs in-
cluding patenting and Propri-
etary Variety Management’s
fee, said James Moyer, associ-
ate dean of research at WSU’s
College of Agricultural, Hu-
man and Natural Resource Sci-
ences. Neither he nor PVM’s
Brandt would disclose the man-
agement fee.
Of the remaining royalties,
10 percent will go to the WSU
Offi ce of Commercialization;
10 percent will go to the Col-
lege of Agricultural, Human
and Natural Resource Scienc-
es; 30 percent will be shared
by the breeders; and 50 percent
will go to WSU plant breed-
ing programs with a majority
earmarked for apple breeding,
Moyer said.
“We’re discussing ways in
which we could create an en-
dowment or some other vehicle
to keep the apple breeding pro-
gram secure for many years to
come,” Moyer said.
“We are extremely proud
of the breeding program and
the excitement it has generated
in the industry and we are en-
couraged by how the industry
has come together to cooperate
and guide us in the licensing,
marketing and developing stan-
dards,” Moyer said.
Will it work?
While the Washington ap-
ple industry is hopeful, the big
question remains: Will it work?
Most people in the industry are
optimistic, but some critics ar-
en’t as sure.
Desmond O’Rourke, retired
WSU agricultural economist
and an apple industry analyst,
says the roll-out of any new va-
riety, even when the supply is
limited as a proprietary or club
variety, can be challenging.
“Unless demand is built up
as rapidly as supplies become
available, it can be very dif-
fi cult to maintain a premium
price,” he wrote in the January
issue of his “World Apple Re-
port.”
Yields can fl uctuate widely
in new plantings and problems
can arise in handling, storage,
transportation, retail displays
and consumers’ kitchens, he
wrote.
“Des is saying with niche
varieties it is a challenge to
keep critical mass. That won’t
be true with this. We will have
critical mass and we will be
able to sustain it,” Brandt said.
Market penetration will be
much higher than any club va-
riety and demand will be driven
by the “wow” factor, he pre-
dicted.
“I have yet to meet anyone
who doesn’t like this apple,” he
said, “and that will drive huge
repeat sales.”
The industry needs a new
main product, consumers are
eager for new varieties and will
quickly switch from older ones,
Brandt said, adding that chanc-
es of success are “very good.”
Byron Phillips, a national
crop specialist in Wenatchee
at Valent USA, a farm chemi-
cal producer in Walnut Creek,
Calif., talked about the Cosmic
Crisp risk in a March 5 Linke-
dIn post.
He fi gured growers will
plant 12 million trees in three
years on an average of 1,089
per acre on 11,000 acres. Trees,
trellises, land preparation and
irrigation equipment will cost
$25,000 per acre, or $50,000
per acre if the cost of buying
land is included, he said.
From that he fi gures a col-
lective industry investment of
$275 million to $550 million
over two years.
Brandt countered that grow-
ers typically replant various
amounts of orchard annually,
so it’s not so much additional
investment as a shift in invest-
ment.
“What makes this invest-
ment an even bigger gamble
is that it is being made on a
variety that the end consumer
has never tasted, never seen
and never heard of,” wrote
Phillips, a tree fruit horticul-
turalist, fi eldman and grower
in Wenatchee over 38 years.
He’s served on the Northwest
Horticultural Council Science
Advisory Board for 14 years,
been on Washington Tree Fruit
Research Commission com-
mittees and is past chairman of
the state Commission on Pesti-
cide Registration.
Cosmic Crisp appearance is
“very inconsistent,” he wrote.
Appearance has long been a fo-
cus of Washington apple sales
so shifting to fl avor and crunch
could be a challenge, he wrote.
“I was just commenting on
the gamble the industry is tak-
ing,” he told Capital Press. “I
hope it works out. Our industry
has big risk-takers, which is a
great thing.”
The appearance is as con-
sistent as any apple and may-
be more so, said Kershaw, the
Domex Superfresh Growers
president. Consumers today are
about taste, fl avor and texture,
he said.
“I always tell people that
maybe appearance gets a con-
sumer to buy the fi rst time,
but fl avor is what makes them
buy a second time and more,”
Kershaw said. “Eating quality
is key so we want to focus on
eating quality.”
While Kershaw has called
the fast ramp-up of Cosmic
Crisp a “gamble,” he says he
thinks it will succeed with may-
be some bumps along the way.
“The best thing for the in-
dustry is to not launch any new
varieties that are not exception-
al,” he said. “If we are always
improving, we have a chance of
increasing consumption. … It’s
really a simple formula. People
eat what they like and we need
to make sure we are growing
what they like to eat.”
‘Let them use any organic technique they want, McLerran says he quashed a tribe proposal to use
EPA funds to sponsor measure to restrict farming
but they’ve got to conform to the order’
WEEDS from Page 1
Azure Farms could lose its
organic certifi cation for three
years if it uses the sprays com-
monly used by conventional
wheat farmers in the area.
Stelzer said mowing weeds
is a method of “control,” for ex-
ample. County offi cials and lo-
cal farmers don’t believe mow-
ing is suffi cient.
However, County Commis-
sioner Tom McCoy said the
proposal is intended to let Azure
Farms select any organic meth-
od it chooses to control weed
seeds, rather than have the court
dictate a method.
“We’ll have them commit
to not allowing (weed) seeds
to form,” he said. “Let them
use any organic technique they
want, but they’ve got to con-
form to the order.”
The pending agreement al-
lows Sherman County weed
district employees to monitor
Azure’s fi elds. They may access
the fi elds “by permission and
appointment only” and must be
accompanied by Azure Farms
representatives.
If a weed patch is out of
compliance, Azure will have
seven days to take care of it. If
nothing is done, Sherman Coun-
ty will take action, which could
involve spraying.
Azure’s neighbors don’t
want seeds from noxious weeds
blowing on to their fi elds, and
the pending agreement defi nes
control to that effect. In windy
Sherman County, weed seeds
can set sail.
The proposed agreement
says it may be an option to let
some “B” type weeds go to seed
when Azure Farms uses vari-
ous biological controls. Other
methods mentioned in previous
discussions include deep tillage,
over-fertilization, covering with
landscape fabric to block light
and water, and spraying with
substances such as calcium,
manganese or boron to make
blooms wilt.
Some Sherman County
farmers believe Azure Farms
should simply spray with an
herbicide such as Milestone
and endure the loss of organic
certifi cation for three years. The
farm could then start over with
clean fi elds, the conventional
farmers argue. Farmers, espe-
cially those who grow certifi ed
seed, are most concerned about
Rush Skeleton weed, Canada
Thistle, White Top, Knapweed
and Morning Glory.
The organic farm’s weed
problems have been a local is-
sue since 2006, but came to a
head this spring when the coun-
ty warned it would ask the Or-
egon Department of Agriculture
to quarantine the 1,922-acre
farm if it didn’t control rampant
noxious weeds that neighboring
wheat farmers said were spread-
ing onto their ground. County
offi cials warned they would
spray herbicide and bill the farm
for the work if the problem was
not dealt with.
The uproar that followed
jolted the county. Azure Stan-
dard, based in Dufur, Ore., and
a major distributor of organic
products, ignited a social media
campaign that fl ooded county
offi cials with telephone mes-
sages and an estimated 59,000
emails from around the world.
Critics accused the county of
planning to “poison” an organic
farm with dangerous chemicals
and of somehow doing the bid-
ding of Monsanto.
SENATE from Page 1
a hearing. The Republican-led
committee closed the hearing
without immediately voting to
send McLerran’s confi rmation
to the Senate fl oor, where it
could be rejected.
McLerran told senators
he wanted to collaborate with
farmers on cleaning up Puget
Sound.
“I have a deep respect for
the agricultural community,” he
said. “The EPA is a tough place
to be because it’s an organiza-
tion that does have regulatory
responsibility, but at my core,
I’m a collaborative person.”
McLerran served as EPA
Region 10 administrator for
seven years during the Obama
administration. The EPA fund-
ed the What’s Upstream cam-
paign between 2011 and 2016.
Ericksen questioned Mc-
Lerran about EPA records that
show the agency was kept in-
formed as the tribe and Strat-
egies 360 developed a media
campaign to portray farmers as
unregulated water polluters.
Ericksen told McLerran that
farmers saw the campaign “as
an attack on a way of life.”
Don Jenkins/Capital Press
Former Environmental Protec-
tion Agency Northwest Adminis-
trator Dennis McLerran.
“Looking back, do you feel
that was a good use of taxpay-
er dollars?” Ericksen asked.
Said McLerran: “I felt
some of it was a bit over the
top.”
McLerran said he quashed
a tribe proposal to use EPA
funds to sponsor a statewide
ballot measure to restrict
farming, but he didn’t con-
nect that plan with the broader
What’s Upstream campaign.
He said he didn’t know
about What’s Upstream un-
til he had a conference call
with the tribe’s environmental
policy director Larry Wasser-
man in July 2015. McLerran
said he asked the tribe to tone
down the campaign, but that
the EPA didn’t have the au-
thority to stop it.
McLerran said the next he
heard about the campaign was
the following spring when
What’s Upstream billboards
drew the ire of farmers and
some federal lawmakers.
EPA records show that
months earlier McLerran’s
staff prepared “talking points”
on What’s Upstream in case
the subject came up during a
meeting in December at the
state Department of Ecolo-
gy. McLerran said after the
hearing Wednesday that he
didn’t recall the report on
What’s Upstream that EPA
staff wrote for him.
The EPA at the national
level distanced itself from
What’s Upstream after the
campaign was condemned
by some federal lawmakers,
including the chairmen of
the House and Senate agri-
culture committees. The EPA
announced it was no longer
funding the campaign, even
though its earlier position had
been that it couldn’t dictate
how the tribe and the North-
west Indian Fisheries Com-
mission spent the money.