A11
B USINESS
THE BULLETIN • WEDNESDAY, MAY 5, 2021
p
DOW
34,133.03 +19.80
BRIEFING
U.S. trade deficit
hits record $74.4B
The U.S. trade deficit
surged to a record $74.4
billion in March . The defi-
cit was 5.6% greater than
the February gap of $70.5
billion, the Commerce
Department reported
Tuesday.
The politically sensitive
trade deficit with China
rose 11.6% to $27.7 bil-
lion which, as usual, was
the largest deficit with
any single country.
The United States re-
corded a deficit for all of
2020 of $681 billion, the
largest gap since 2008 as
the coronavirus disrupted
global commerce and con-
founded then-President
Donald Trump’s “America
First” policies.
The U.S. economy is
recovering much faster
than the rest of the world .
Americans are starting to
spend again, while U.S.
exporters are facing slug-
gish overseas demand in
nations slower to recover.
Trump’s efforts failed
to alter trade imbalances
and angered U.S. allies
along with competitors .
So far, however, the Biden
administration has not
rolled back the Trump
policies.
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Laird Superfoods buys Picky Bars for $12M
Both companies are based in Central Oregon,
have shared values in health foods sector
BY MICHAEL KOHN
The Bulletin
Bend-based Picky Bars,
founded by triathletes and a fa-
vorite snack among active peo-
ple craving a burst of carbs, has
been sold to Laird Superfoods,
the Sisters-based company that
produces plant-based creamers.
Laird Superfoods, founded
by big wave surfer Laird
Hamilton, paid $12 million
for Picky Bars, according to
a release. Shares of Laird Su-
perfoods (NYSE: LSF) rose to
$37.50 on Tuesday, a 1.5% gain
compared to Monday’s close.
The merger shines a spot-
light on Central Oregon as an
emerging producer of healthy
foods and snacks. The area is
also home to beverage maker
Humm Kombucha, cookie
maker Red Plate Foods, and
granola maker Bird Seed
Food Co.
Laird Superfoods and Picky
Bars maintain similar values,
promoting natural ingredients
and nutrition for people with
an active lifestyle. And with the
pair both located in Central
Oregon, uprooting operations
won’t be necessary.
“They have a shared vision,
they are good people, they are
invested in the Central Oregon
community — it couldn’t be any
better,” said Lauren Fleshman, a
co-founder of Picky Bars.
Mike Quinones, senior vice
president of growth and mar-
keting for Laird Superfoods,
said in an email he anticipates
getting Picky Bars onto shelves
in more than 7,000 retail stores
across the country. Picky Bars
could appear in convenience
stores and drug stores, he said.
“We believe these incredible
products will resonate partic-
ularly well with our existing
and loyal customer base,” said
Quinones.
That growth should pro-
vide Picky Bars more resources
to create new products, said
Picky Bars chief executive Jesse
Thomas
The company increased
its sales by 40% in 2020 com-
pared to the previous year, said
Thomas, helped mainly by
growth in online sales. Even
with the growth, Thomas said
the timing to sell was good.
“We could have hung onto
it and sold it for more later. We
were growing a lot but when it
came down to it, enough was
enough,” he said. “We didn’t
want to pass up the opportu-
nity to have all these synergies
with this partner.”
Thomas, who was born
in Bend and graduated from
Mountain View High School,
said he will remain with the
company as a vice president
of Picky Bars and guest of the
Laird Superfood Executive
Leadership Team.
Fleshman, who is married
to Thomas, will be a strategic
advisor for the company and
take a seat on the Laird Super-
foods Environmental, Social,
and Governance Committee. A
third founder, Steph Bruce, will
also remain with the company
as an advisor.
Fleshman said the founders
could have kept the company
as revenue was increasing an-
nually, but felt that Laird Su-
perfoods ticked all the boxes
for a great partner.
“The scenario under which
we entertained selling was such
a narrow set of qualities, Laird
Superfoods has them all,” she
said.
The $12 million sale of
the company was a long way
from the early 2010s when the
founders were making Picky
bars in a house in Springfield.
Now Fleshman and Thomas
have two young children, aged
3 and 7, and the pressures of
running the business have
been lifted with the sale.
“Owning a business with
your spouse has challenges ;
owning a business period has
its peaks and valleys,” said
Fleshman. “We started think-
ing a couple of years ago what
it might look like to sell o ne
day, just a different variation
where (the business) wasn’t
all on us at the end of the day.
And so that is what we are do-
ing.”
Both Fleshman and Thomas
said they don’t have any grand
plans of how to invest the
money they’ve earned from the
sale, but their 7-year-old has
some ideas.
“We might add a third room
to our house,” Thomas said,
laughing. “Our older son is
complaining about having to
share a room with his sister.”
Reporter: 541-617-7818,
mkohn@bendbulletin.com
Pfizer posts $4.9B
quarter-one profit
Selling vaccines during
a pandemic has boosted
Pfizer’s bottom line and
proven that a strategy it
embarked upon over a
decade ago is now pay-
ing off handsomely.
The New York-based
pharmaceutical giant
reported Tuesday that it
earned $4.9 billion in the
first three months of the
year and it dramatically
raised its profit forecast
for all of 2021 thanks to
strong demand for its
COVID-19 vaccine. The
company, along with its
German partner BioN-
Tech, anticipates strong
revenue from the vaccine
and booster shots for the
next three years.
Pfizer on Tuesday al-
most doubled its sales
projections for the
COVID-19 vaccine this
year, from $15 billion to
roughly $26 billion.
Hyundai recalls
over 390K vehicles
Hyundai is recalling
more than 390,000 vehi-
cles in the U.S. and Can-
ada for two problems that
can cause engine fires. In
one recall, owners are be-
ing told to park their vehi-
cles outdoors until repairs
are made.
The largest recall cov-
ers more than 203,000
Santa Fe Sport SUVs
from 2013 through 2015.
Some are being recalled
a second time. Brake fluid
can leak into the anti-lock
brake computer, causing
an electrical short that
can lead to fires. Owners
should park outdoors and
away from structures un-
til the problem is fixed,
according to the U.S.
National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration.
The problem has
caused 18 fires in the U.S.,
but no injuries, according
to documents.
Hyundai says the recall
“enhances the remedy”
from one issued in Sep-
tember of 2020.
The other recall covers
nearly 187,000 2019 and
2020 Elantras, and 2019
through 2021 Konas and
Velosters. All have 2-liter
engines.
The piston rings may
not have been properly
heat-treated, which can
cause engine damage, oil
leaks and possible fires.
— Bulletin wire reports
Hemp prices
‘race to the BOTTOM’
Hemp plants dry on a farm east of
Joseph in this 2019 photo.
BY MATEUSZ PERKOWSKI • Capital Press
Bill Bradshaw/Wallowa
County Chieftain file
Stockpiles of unsold hemp are weighing down
prices for the crop and souring enthusiasm among farmers who’d until recently hoped
for a lucrative new market. In a dynamic that’s not uncommon in agriculture, hemp production has overshot demand,
which was once thought to be expansive, said Barry Cook, a hemp seed grower in Boring .
“The consumer component of it was
assumed, a bit like the Field of Dreams:
Grow it and you will sell it,” he said.
That assumption turned out to be
overly optimistic, as some growers are
still sitting on dried hemp inventory
from 2019, when the fervor to plant the
crop was at its highest, Cook said.
Farmers are now being offered $1 per
pound or less for dry hemp biomass,
which is roughly half as much as it costs
to produce it, even among the most effi-
cient growers, he said.
In Oregon, a frontrunner in the
hemp industry, acreage soared after the
crop was legalized at the national level
in 2018. Growers planted nearly 64,000
acres in 2019, up from 11,500 acres the
year before. The economic problems
facing hemp production became widely
apparent that autumn, when many
farmers weren’t able to access enough
harvesting and processing equipment.
Oregon’s production in 2020 dropped
to 28,500 acres and appears to be fur-
ther declining in 2021, with only 3,800
acres currently registered for planting
— down roughly 50% from this time
last year, according to the Oregon De-
partment of Agriculture.
“There’s a lot of biomass still out
there, and growers aren’t getting paid
for it,” said Ken Iverson, a hemp farmer
and processor in Woodburn .
The hemp industry overestimated
the appetite for cannabidiol, or CBD, a
compound considered to have anti-in-
flammatory and other healthful proper-
ties, Iverson said.
Nationwide, farmers planted more
than 500,000 acres of hemp while only
about 20,000 acres were sufficient to
satisfy the CBD market, he said. “It’s
still way out of balance.”
A survey of hemp farmers by Whit-
ney Economics in 2019 found that 65%
didn’t have a buyer for their crop, while a
similar survey in 2020 determined 54%
of processors also did not, said Beau
Whitney, an economist who founded the
firm and studies the industry.
Oregon and other states that jumped
into hemp early have pulled back on
acreage, but that didn’t cause a major
national contraction in 2020 because
other states ramped up their produc-
tion, Whitney said.
Though the nationwide hemp indus-
try is likely to decrease acreage in 2021,
some distressed farmers and processors
are trying to salvage their investment
by selling below the cost of production
— resulting in a “race to the bottom” in
prices, he said.
“That’s scaring away people,” Whit-
ney said.
There’s been a “domino effect” of
plummeting demand through the
hemp supply chain, all the way to seed
production, said Jerry Norton, an in-
dustry consultant in Salem .
Despite the economic turmoil, Nor-
ton said he’s hopeful that other uses for
hemp — such as livestock feed and bio-
degradable plastic — will firm up the
crop’s market over time.
“There are a lot of other things we
can do,” he said.
By 2030, demand for such hemp
products may spur the crop to 9 mil-
lion acres at the national level, with only
3% dedicated to CBD production, said
Whitney, the economist. Currently,
about 82% of the 500,000 hemp acres in
the U.S. are intended for CBD.
The demand for CBD will strengthen
if the U.S. Food and Drug Administra-
tion decides to allow the compound to
be marketed as a dietary supplement,
rather than strictly a pharmaceuti-
cal, said Seth Crawford, a hemp seed
breeder near Monmouth .
OSU-fueled firm advances in water-desalination race
BY JIM DAY
Albany Democrat-Herald
A company with Oregon
State University ties has ad-
vanced to the final eight of a lu-
crative competition to desalinate
water using solar power.
Espiku, with scientists and
researchers at the Corvallis cam-
pus and at the Cascades campus
in Bend, received $250,000 in
cash and a $100,000 voucher to
continue its work.
Advancing to the next round
would yield $750,000 and an-
other $100K voucher, with the
ultimate winner taking home $1
million.
“We are honored and thrilled
to be one of the eight semifinal-
ists,” said Bahman Abbasi, an
assistant professor of mechani-
cal, industrial and manufactur-
ing engineering (a field known
as MIME for short) at OSU’s
Cascades campus. “The project
aims to design and build a pilot
plant to clean oil/gas wastewater
and produce clean water with
zero liquid discharge.”
Abbasi, who formed Espiku
last October, is leading a team
that includes 15 people: a full-
time engineer, two postdoctoral
researchers, seven graduate
students and five undergrad re-
search assistants. The postdocs
and grad students are based in
Corvallis, with the rest of the
team in Bend. The project also
is being constructed in Bend.
Despite the distance, Abbasi said
the work is moving forward well.
“OSU’s College of Engineer-
ing, and particularly MIME,
has an extraordinary culture of
collaboration and empowering
research and innovation,” he
said. “(Everyone) has been tre-
mendously supportive of our
research.”
More support is needed, how-
ever.
“The prize is a great help to
enable further development.
However, much more funding is
needed to design and build the
pilot unit,” Abbasi said. “We are
working with state agencies and
looking at opportunities within
the federal government to aug-
ment the prize and continue our
work. We are working hard to
bridge the infamous ‘valley of
death’ which nascent technolo-
gies encounter.”
Investopedia says a startup
company’s “death valley curve”
is the span of time from its ini-
tial capital contribution until it
finally begins generating reve-
nue.
The competition is being
funded by the federal Depart-
ment of Energy.