Schlect, Christian

English

Research Papers in Economics

Agricultural Outlook Forum 2004  Presented Thursday, February 19, 2004 
 
 
EXPORT VIEWS OF A SPECIALITY CROP INDUSTRY 
 
Christian Schlect 
President, Northwest Horticultural Council 
 
I appreciate being asked to participate on this panel and specifically to represent the views of one 
specialty crop industry on the importance of exports. 
 
The Northwest Horticultural Council, based in Yakima, Washington, works on federal and international 
policy issues of importance to the tree fruit industry of Idaho, Oregon and Washington.  It has done so 
since 1947.  Our primary crops are apples, pears and sweet cherries.  We raise more of each of these 
three fruits than any other region of the United States.  In an average year, about one-third of our apples, 
pears and sweet cherries are exported to markets around the world. 
 
I recently finished reading a very good book - “Black Earth” - by Andrew Meier about his journey 
through Russia after the fall of the Soviet government.  One story in the book describes the Russian 
settlement on Sakhalin Island to the north of Japan.  A present resident described a scene from the 
1930s: 
 
“Tatyana had no idea where her grandfather, the man who met Chekhov, was buried.  
Some mass grave, she imagined.  Caught up in Stalin’s purges, he had been arrested 
as a Japanese spy.  He had lived in a village in the north of the island and was in his 
seventies when he was taken away.  He’d long quit the collective farm, but he had 
continued to farm his own small plot.  There had been some kind of contact with the 
Japanese.  Tatyana’s mother remembered it warmly.  A Japanese family had visited.  
She had played with the boy.  ‘It was just trade,’ Tatyana said.  ‘Bread for apples.’ ” 
 
Compare this illustration of the type of basic exchange of commodities between people of different 
cultures that has gone on since the dawn of time with the complex transactions of today.  Yet, it is  still 
“bread for apples.” 
 
When I started working for the Northwest Horticultural Council in 1980, our major export policy work 
included trying to determine when exactly the Scandinavian nations would open their markets for apples 
and pears in advance of Christmas.  At the time, they had an opening date system to protect local 
producers.  When the domestic crop was about gone, they would allow in our fruit.  Break-bulk 
chartered ships would transport the apples and pears.  Sales were based on long-term business 
relationships cemented by personal travel and trust.  We sent trade information out to our industry by 
mimeographed newsletter. 
 
As we shift to the present day, trade in its most basic form is still occurring.  However, now the volume 
has increased and the complexity has intensified. 
 
With the advent of high speed and low cost computers and the Internet, the way fresh produce is sold to 
ultimate consumers has radically changed.  Crowding out the relatively small grocery store outlets of the 
western world and the back street wet markets of Asia, we now have multi-national retailers who move 
mass quantities of produce through their enormous range of operations.    
Today, shippers in our industry must keep track of a multitude of export issues.  Many of these are 
regulated by the governments of those countries where the fruit is to be shipped.   All of which can be, 
and often are, manipulated to prevent or severely restrict unwanted imports that might harm domestic 
producers.  Some of these are: 
 
  Food safety (traceability/MRLs) 
  Plant protection and quarantine issues involving pests and diseases 
  Tariffs and quotas 
  Packaging and labeling requirements 
  Currency and licensing controls 
 
In this more complicated world, having the various agencies of the United States government assisting 
domestic industries, such as ours, in their export efforts is essential.  The only way for our apples to gain 
access to Australia, now barred due to concern over fire blight, will be through phytosanitary 
discussions led by the Plant Protection & Quarantine staff of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection 
Service and research conducted by the Agricultural Research Service, both of USDA.  The only way we 
are to gain tariff free access to the Central American countries, which is now already enjoyed by our 
arch competitor Chile, is through trade negotiations led by USTR.  The Environmental Protection 
Agency is needed for the establishment of reasonable international standards for maximum residue 
levels for agricultural chemicals.  Above all, and as the umbrella for all our trade efforts, is the Foreign 
Agricultural Service.  Administrator Terpstra leads an agency which has been at the forefront of 
expanding U.S. agricultural exports for over fifty years.  It has our interests at heart.  While export 
promotion efforts overseas and economic analysis continue to be important missions of FAS, in my 
mind, it is the trade policy and technical work aimed at expanding exports that will be the future of the 
agency.  When you look at the major issues related to agricultural trade over the past two decades, 
USDA has always taken the lead in opening and, perhaps more importantly, maintaining access to key 
foreign markets whether it is for America’s beef, wheat or apples.   
 
As a result of this key federal role, it is essential that Congress and the Administration devote the 
resources necessary to USDA to address the technical food safety issues of the day related to our 
country’s important agricultural export trade.  In most cases, only the United States working directly 
with other governments has the credibility and resources to resolve the very difficult official problems 
that more and more arise when you move food, especially fresh produce, across international 
boundaries. 
 
In conclusion 
 
Our industry views trade as a reality, whether inbound or outbound.  We do not live in a world, or at a 
time, when the United States, the world’s economic and military leader, can close its markets to others.  
While we must, as an industry organization, do our best to try to manage competition to the benefit of 
the growers we represent, with 95% of the population of this world residing outside our borders and 
30% of our product already heading there, it is clear that export trade is essential to those same growers’ 
current and future well being.  As a result, we look forward to working with the U.S. Department of 
Agriculture, and the other agencies of our government, to facilitate exports and continue to make it 
possible between peoples to exchange “bread for apples.” 
 
____________________________ 

EXPORT VIEWS OF A SPECIALITY CROP INDUSTRY

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Research Papers in Economics