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EMPOWERING PRODUCERS OF FOOD & FIBER Friday, September 6, 2019 Volume 92, Number 36 CapitalPress.com $2.00 R U S S IA G EO RG IA Tbilisi a Black Se B U LG A R IA A RM . Giresun Istanbul A ZE R. G RE EC E Ankara TURKE Y IR A N Giresun Province IR A Q G RE EC E Crete Rhodes CY PR U S anean Mediterr Sea Source: CIA S Y R IA Nicosia LE BA N O N Beirut Damascus s IS RA EL Golan Height 100 miles JO RD O N ess a/Capital Pr g Alan Kena Factbook Paris Achen/For the Capital Press Hazelnuts drying on a sidewalk in Bulancak, Giresun, Turkey. First record of hazelnuts in Turkey dates back at least 300 years before Christ By PARIS ACHEN For the Capital Press IRESUN, Turkey — In an elementary school yard in the tiny Black Sea village of Bulancak in northeast Turkey, two workers spread out hazelnuts to dry in the parking lot. In front of them is the seaside and behind them are seem- ingly endless verdant hillsides blanketed by hazelnut orchards. Turkey leads by large margins every nation in the world in both hazelnut production and exports. The country, straddling Asia and Europe, produces and exports more than 70% of the world’s hazelnuts. Between last September and August of this year, Turkey exported 263,212 tons of hazelnuts, worth nearly $1.6 billion, according to Fiskobir- o Courtesy phot lik — the Hazelnut Agricultural Sales Cooperatives Association — based ts hazelnu in the Black Sea province of Giresun. g n ri e h at g iresun, Elif Kaya of Kesap, G in the town See Turkey, Page 12 Turkey. Chinese tariff hikes squeeze hay exports By DAN WHEAT Capital Press ELLENSBURG, Wash. — U.S. hay exports to China could be finished Dec. 15 when the tar- iff increases from 33% to 42%, a leading U.S. hay exporter says. “To date, tariff impact has resulted in roughly a 40% decrease in imports of U.S. alfalfa hay. Most customers say if we end up with a 42% tariff, imports will cease and alternatives will be forced,” said Mark Anderson, president and CEO of Anderson Hay & Grain Co. in Ellensburg. China has been buying alterna- tives from Australia, Spain, South America and Canada that don’t totally fill its alfalfa need, Ander- son said. Local forage including corn silage most likely would be a longer term alternative, he said. Right now the alfalfa market to China “remains fairly strong due to limited carryover from last crop year and very light supplies of good green hay due to intermit- tent rain during harvest to date this summer,” he said. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have been mak- ing up some of the lost exports to China, Anderson said. Ultimately, less hay would be exported from the U.S. longer term if China was not a big buyer, he said. In May, Anderson said the tar- iff, which increased from 8% to 32% in July of 2018, had caused a reduction in sales. At that time, Jon Paul Driver, a hay analyst with Northwest Farm Credit Services in Spokane, said the China decline was largely off- set by increased sales to Saudi Arabia. In 2017, before the tariff increases, China bought 1.2 mil- lion metric tons of U.S. hay, mostly for dairies. It was the No. 1 export market for U.S. alfalfa and was No. 2 to Japan for all U.S. hay. Paris Achen/For the Capital Press Sculpture of a man and woman carrying a giant filbert on their heads in the city center of Giresun. Phylloxera discovered in Walla Walla vineyards Pest raises concerns about replanting vineyard with resistant rootstocks By MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI Capital Press Washington State Department of Agriculture Grapes grow in a vineyard in Walla Walla, Wash. Growers in the area have detected the phylloxera pest for the first time in the past month. New detections of the lethal phylloxera pest in vineyards in Washington’s Walla Walla region are raising concerns about costlier management practices and potential rootstock replacements. Over the past month, grape growers in the area have reported finding damage from the insect, which causes root galls and eventually kills the plant. The exact number of infested vineyards hasn’t yet been determined, experts say. “It just seems to pop up in weird places on occasion. Never in Walla Walla, so that’s new,” said Katie Buckley, entomolo- gist with the Washington State Department of Agriculture. “We’re hoping to figure out where it came from, or maybe at least how far it’s spread.” While phylloxera affects plant vigor rather than grape quality, the Walla Walla detec- tions are serving as a “gen- tle wake-up call” to refocus on clean plants and vineyards, said Vicky Scharlau, execu- tive director of the Washington Winegrowers Association. “There’s still great care that needs to be taken if you want a long-term sustainable vine- yard,” she said. Though phylloxera was first found in Washington grapes more than a century ago, the state’s vineyards are generally planted in sandy soils that aren’t conducive to the pest. For that reason, growers have often been able to plant grape varieties with their own roots, rather than those grafted onto phylloxera-resistant rootstocks. It’s possible some Washing- ton grape producers will need to reconsider that practice as more is learned about the extent of the latest discovery of phylloxera, said Gwen Hoheisel, regional extension specialist with Wash- ington State University. The discovery of phyllox- era is not a “catastrophe” for the region’s wine industry, though it’s an unwelcome headache at the already stressful time of grape harvest, she said. “The rest of the world has this bug.” See Phylloxera, Page 12
