BUSINESS
Saturday, January 18, 2020
East Oregonian
A7
Barhyte Specialty Foods receives recycling award
Pendleton Sanitary Service hands out
Commercial Recycler of the Year honor
By BEN LONERGAN
East Oregonian
PENDLETON — Pend-
leton Sanitary Service
announced that Barhyte Spe-
cialty Foods was selected as
its 2019 Commercial Recy-
cler of the Year during an
award presentation at Bar-
hyte’s Pendleton headquar-
ters on Thursday morning.
Mike Barhyte, president
of operations for Barhyte
Specialty Foods, said the
company has been working
to focus on organic goods
and renewable resources in
recent years and this award
highlights that effort.
“We’ve been trying to
order more and more things
in bulk containers, such as
tankers and drums,” he said.
“Even if we get materials
in cardboard packaging we
ensure that it is recycled.”
Barhyte Specialty Foods
recycled more than 85 tons
of cardboard last year, and
Barhyte said its expansion
in recent years has helped to
cut on-site use of nonrenew-
able materials.
“Being a bigger company
certainly helps us,” Barhyte
said. “Now everything is
right here and we can order
materials in bulk.”
Last year, Pendleton
Sanitary Service took in
around 7,000 tons of recy-
clable material through-
out its service area, with
1,465 tons being cardboard.
Mike McHenry, president
Staff photo by Ben Lonergan
Barhyte Specialty Foods President of Operations Mike Bar-
hyte, left, poses for a picture with Pendleton Sanitary Ser-
vice President Mike McHenry with the award for Commercial
Recycler of the Year at Barhyte Specialty Foods in Pendleton
on Thursday morning.
of Pendleton Sanitary Ser-
vice, said although Barhyte
does not generate the most
recycling in the region, they
ensure that their cardboard
is always free of trash and
other waste.
“A big part is the quality
of the materials,” McHenry
said. “Their stuff is spotless
and they do a great job sort-
ing it out.”
McHenry said the deci-
sion on who is chosen each
year falls largely on his
employees, since they are
the ones with fi rst-hand
experience of the material
being recycled.
“They’re the ones look-
ing at it every day,” he said.
According to McHenry,
this year’s decision was
unanimous among his
employees and took into
account not only Bar-
hyte
Specialty
Foods’
quality control, but also
its other commitment to
reduce waste. In his award
announcement, McHenry
referenced the company’s
reliance on reusable contain-
ers, such as drums and totes,
that help to cut down on total
waste, including recyclables.
“We give out the award
for a multitude of reasons,”
he said. “It could be addi-
tional effort or new pro-
grams that a company has
introduced.”
Pendleton Sanitary Ser-
vice has been running
a commercial recycling
award program for more
than 20 years, according to
McHenry, who sees it as an
excellent incentive to get
companies to recycle more.
While McHenry, said that
Barhyte Specialty Foods had
previously been unaware of
the award, he said that he
has worked with numerous
local organizations to help
develop recycling plans and
increase awareness of the
program.
“It’s a pretty big shot in
the arm for businesses,”
McHenry said. “It says
you’ve done a good job, and
recognizes you for it.”
Grocery Outlet to open in Hermiston
By JADE MCDOWELL
East Oregonian
Kiona Vineyards and Winery Photo/JJ Williams
Junior Flores handles wine at Kiona Vineyards and Winery in Benton City, Wash.
Impending tariffs bring winery woes
By SIERRA DAWN
MCCLAIN
Capital Press
PORTLAND — Most
years, January is a month
of glory for the wine indus-
try — cele-
brating the
harvest and
holiday sales
of the pre-
vious year
and
gear-
ing up for
McKamey
the next sea-
son. But for
U.S. winemakers, January
2020 is a time of worry as
the industry girds itself for
the Trump administration’s
threat to impose 100% tariffs
on European wine imports.
It may appear that a duty
on European wines would
sweep away competition for
the domestic industry and
lift U.S. producers’ prof-
its. But American wine pro-
ducers say that, rather than
helping them, an import tax
could devastate their indus-
try through damaging the
overall wine-drinking cul-
ture and putting distributors
out of business.
Although the U.S. Trade
Representative has not
issued a defi nite timeline yet,
the tariffs could be imposed
as early as February.
“It seems like almost
everybody’s worried about
this,” said Jason Haas, gen-
eral manager of Tablas
Creek Farm, a vineyard in
Paso Robles, Calif.
According to the Wine
and Spirits Wholesalers
of America, a 100% tariff
on French sparkling wines
alone could dismantle an
estimated 17,000 U.S. jobs.
Direct importers would
be hit hardest, but indus-
try leaders from winegrow-
ers’ associations in Oregon,
Washington and California
said an entire web of busi-
nesses and people connected
to European wine would be
impacted — including vine-
yards and wineries, distrib-
utors, restaurants and bars,
retail shops, hospitality
businesses, manufacturers,
transportation workers and
dock workers.
The tariffs are part of
HERMISTON
—
Hermiston is getting a new
grocery store in March.
Grocery Outlet has
announced the opening of
its new Hermiston location
is planned for March 5. The
store will be located in the
former Fiesta Foods build-
ing at 1874 N. First St.
They will hold a hir-
ing event on Jan. 26 from
1-4 p.m. and Jan. 27 from
4-7:30 p.m. at the Herm-
iston Community Cen-
ter, 415 S. Highway 395.
Full- and part-time posi-
tions in departments rang-
ing from freight to deli are
available. Résumés should
be emailed to hermiston@
groceryoutlet.com ahead of
the event.
The local owner-oper-
ators will be Nicole and
Alan Westing, who moved
their family (including six
children and a cat) from the
Staff photo by Jade McDowell
The former Fiesta Foods building is being remodeled into
a Grocery Outlet, which is slated to open March 5.
East Coast to join Grocery
Outlet. Alan previously
managed grocery stores,
big box retailers, and
national drug stores, and
Nicole worked as a radio-
logic technologist.
“We are both absolutely
stoked for our new careers
as Independent Operators
of the Hermiston Grocery
Outlet — together, with our
kids alongside,” the West-
ings said in an email. “The
Hermiston community is
so friendly and welcoming
and we are proud to repre-
sent this city, ‘Where Life
is Sweet.’”
Grocery Outlet began
in 1946 and has more than
300 locations today. The
company, which describes
itself as an “extreme value
retailer,” purchases product
overruns, surplus inven-
tory and other items at a
discount to keep prices low.
DEAR CABIN FEVER,
IT’S NO TIME TO HIBERNATE.
LET’S GO,
Kiona Vineyards and Winery Photo/JJ Williams
JJ Williams, director of operations at Kiona Vineyard and
Winery, in Benton City, Wash.
U.S. retaliation against the
European Union in response
to subsidies it gives to Air-
bus, a European aerospace
company.
The Trump administra-
tion has also threatened to
impose a separate 100% tar-
iff on champagne and other
products to punish France
for imposing a tax on Amer-
ican technology companies.
“This is a no-win propo-
sition,” said Jana McKamey,
executive director of the Ore-
gon Winegrowers Associa-
tion. “It creates chaos in the
marketplace and reinforces
hostile trading in the global
ecosystem. Wine should not
be used as a retaliatory pawn
to unrelated industries.”
This isn’t the fi rst tariff
to jolt the industry. Accord-
ing to McKamey, the U.S.
wine industry faced tariffs
with Canada in 2015 and
has grappled with a ferment-
ing tariff dispute with China
since 2018.
In October 2019, the
Trump
administration
imposed a 25% tariff on
many European wines. Most
U.S. wine businesses cut
margins and raised prices
as little as possible. But at
100%, experts say, that’s no
longer sustainable.
The tariffs will hurt U.S.
consumers, making popular
wines unavailable and forc-
ing consumers to search for
alternatives, said Sara Hig-
gins, spokeswoman for the
Washington Winegrowers
Association.
Good wine, Higgins
explained, is a product of
a place and culture and is
U.S. TRADE LAW
U.S. trade law dictates
that certain wines may
only come from the
places after which they
are named.
https://www.law.cornell.
edu/uscode/text/26/5388
not interchangeable.
“Terroir,” a popular wine
term, describes how a partic-
ular soil, climate, terrain and
tradition affect fl avor. If, for
example, Burgundy doubles
in price, consumers will not
be able to swap it for Oregon
pinot noir and get the same
experience. It is not the same
wine.
But it’s not just about per-
sonal taste — trade law lit-
erally dictates that certain
wines may only come from
the places after which they
are named.
Higgins said if prices cat-
apulted, consumers would
be more likely to look for
substitutions to wine itself.
“Wine doesn’t have the
universal appeal of beer, at
least not in the U.S.,” said JJ
Williams, director of oper-
ations at Kiona Vineyard
and Winery in Benton City,
Washington. “If someone
likes to drink a Red Moun-
tain cabernet, it’s not their
starting point. A lot of peo-
ple start out with high-end
European offerings and go
down the rabbit hole into
domestic wines. When peo-
ple drink less European
wine, they also drink less
domestic wine. And that
hurts us.”
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