Friday, December 21, 2018
CapitalPress.com
9
Apple exports to Middle East plummet
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
YAKIMA, Wash. —
Washington apple exports
to the Mid-
dle East are
down
66
percent so
far this sea-
son due to
increased
competition
from Europe
Todd
and Turkey.
Fryhover
“There is
an average of a $5 differ-
ence between Washington
and European Union apples
at the wholesale level and
at that we can’t move fruit
in there,” Todd Fryhover,
Washington Apple Commis-
sion president, told commis-
sioners at a Dec. 6 meeting
in Yakima. Fryhover visited
importers and retail markets
in the Middle East, Nov. 3-8.
War in Yemen and
increased taxes in Dubai
and Saudi Arabia to pay for
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Red Delicious remains the preferred Washington apple
variety in the Middle East but far fewer will be shipped there
this season because European and Turkish apples are closer
and less expensive.
the war are contributing to a
20 percent reduction in the
region’s economy which is
altering apple imports, Fry-
hover said.
Washington apple prices
are moving up because of a
small crop while other coun-
tries have volume and low
prices.
“Places like Poland,
Ukraine, south Russia and
Iran will take over the low-
value side into the Middle
East and that’s a large per-
centage of that market,” he
said. “We will be the high
value and how much there
is will be the question.”
Saudi Arabia has lost 2
million of 7 million foreign-
ers living there because of a
tax on them aimed at get-
ting more Saudis employed,
Fryhover said.
Turkey is becoming
Saudi Arabia’s main apple
supplier.
“I met with the larg-
est importer in Saudi Ara-
bia and he said the week
prior visiting Russians said
in five to 10 years they will
supply all of Saudi Arabia’s
apple needs,” Fryhover
said. “There are vast new
plantings in the Ukraine
we’re just now becom-
ing aware of that will tar-
get Europe, the Middle East
and Asia.”
Apple commission seeks more promotional funding
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
YAKIMA, Wash. — The Wash-
ington Apple Commission hopes
to know soon how much more
export promotion money it will
get from USDA because of lost
sales caused by retaliatory tariffs.
The
commission
already
receives $5 million annually from
USDA’s Market Access Program
largely for in-store promotions of
Washington apples overseas.
The commission met a Nov. 2
deadline to apply for $10.7 mil-
lion from USDA’s new Agricul-
tural Trade Promotion program
for broader public relations for
overseas promotions. It would be
a one-time award requiring a 10
percent commission match.
Todd Fryhover, commission
president, said at a Dec. 6 com-
mission meeting in Yakima that he
hopes to get at least $5 million out
of the $10.7 million request. Com-
bined with the $5 million MAP
money and $3 million to $3.5 mil-
Dan Wheat/Capital Press
Maria Mendoza fills trays with Red
Delicious apples bound for Mexico
at Olympic Fruit Co., Moxee, Wash.
The Washington Apple Commission
has applied for $10.7 million from
USDA’s new Agricultural Trade
Promotion program for broader
public relations for overseas
promotions.
lion in grower money, it would
boost the commission’s export
promotional budget to about $13
million for the 2019-20 sales
season.
MAP is all point-of-purchase
promotions. The ATP money has
to be used differently, so it would
go for broader public relations that
the commission has wanted but
couldn’t afford, he said.
Priorities would be Mexico,
India, China and Southeast Asia
and secondarily Central and South
America and Canada.
The direct loss of export sales
of Washington apples in the 2018-
19 sales season due to tariffs by
Mexico, India and China has been
estimated at $129 million.
USDA awards $200 mil-
lion in MAP funds annually for
which this year’s requests totaled
$306 million, Fryhover said.
ATP will be $200 million, and
requests totaled $621 million, he
said.
Mark Powers, Northwest Hor-
ticultural Council president, chairs
a coalition of MAP recipients that
has sought a doubling of MAP
funding.
“So this additional $200 mil-
lion ATP didn’t come out of thin
air. It is a test case, if you will,
what industries would do with an
additional $200 million if it were
there,” he said.
Dubai had been a
regional apple re-export
hub but is no longer.
Dubai’s 5 percent value
added tax has taken away
its re-export advantage
and it is now re-exporting
10 percent of the apples it
imports instead of the 45 to
50 percent it has enjoyed,
he said.
“Most of the people I
spoke with absolutely love
President Trump. They love
that someone is willing to
stand up against Iran. One
importer said 90 percent
of the issues in the Middle
East come from Iran,” Fry-
hover said.
Poland is a large apple
producer and is looming
large in the Middle East
with a good quality crop
and extremely low prices,
he said.
Turkey and Italy also are
large producers.
Jordan has dropped
its Washington imports
12 percent while increas-
ing EU imports 28 percent
and there is a minimum
$6 a box price difference
between Washington apples
and those from Poland and
Greece, he said.
Washington exported 4.5
million, 40-pound boxes of
apples to the Middle East in
2013 and 5 million in 2014,
but that fell 50 percent the
next two years as the Rus-
sian embargo on Western
produce caused Poland and
other European countries
to shift apple exports to the
Middle East.
This year, season-to-date
as of Nov. 30, Washington
exported 207,349 boxes of
apples to the Middle East
versus 617,877 for the same
period year earlier. That’s
down 66 percent.
The two largest, United
Arab Emirates (Dubai) and
Saudi Arabia, are down
70 and 65 percent, respec-
tively. The rest include:
Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Bah-
rain and Egypt.
Thomas picked as
Apple Citizen of the Year
By DAN WHEAT
Capital Press
WENATCHEE, Wash. —
Dalton Thomas, a leader in the
Washington tree fruit industry,
has been named 2019 Apple Cit-
izen of the Year by the Washing-
ton Apple Blossom Festival in
Wenatchee.
Thomas, retired president of
Oneonta Starr Ranch Growers, of
Wenatchee, will ride in the fes-
tival’s Stemilt Growers Grand
Parade on May 4 and will be hon-
ored at the All Service Club Lun-
cheon on May 1. It is the 100th
year of the festival.
The company was founded
by his late father, Paul “Tommy”
Thomas, in 1934 as the first
exporter of Washington apples.
The younger Thomas became
president in the 1970s and opened
Washington apple exports to Asia
in 1972 with the first shipment
to Taiwan. He
also led the way
into
Indonesia
and other Asian
markets.
He received
an award at the
Dalton
Asiafruit Con-
Thomas
gress in Hong
Kong, Sept. 4.
Thomas’ sons, Brad and
Jimmy, are now president and
vice president, respectively, of
Oneonta Starr Ranch Growers.
Oneonta grows, packs and
ships 15.5 million, 40-pound
boxes of apples, 2.5 million,
44-pound boxes of pears, 2 mil-
lion, 20-pound boxes of cherries
annually as well as stone fruit
from Washington and Oregon. It
exports almost 2 million cartons
of grapes and citrus annually from
California and is one the biggest
biggest growers of Honeycrisp
apples in New Zealand.
51-2-3/HOU