Investing In Innovation

Investing In Innovation. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Dr. Clark Seavert, Ag Economist with Oregon State University recently talked with a large group of tree fruit producers about the future and one of Clark’s opening statements was right from Yogi Berra, “The future ain’t what it used to be.” And according to Seavert, that has him excited.

SEAVERT: Why I’m optimistic about the industry is that working with these other industries is that outside the industry, nobody is talking about pears. That’s a good thing. You‘re flying underneath the radar and that’s a good thing. Nobody’s calling me up and saying hey, I’m an investor. I’m going to do this or I’m looking for a farm, I’m looking for - nobody calls me up and asks me that. There’s other crops that are more exciting. Hazelnuts. Big prices right now and it’s all mechanized.

That sounds counter-intuitive but he explains it’s because it has been a fairly steady industry without a lot of ups and down.

SEAVERT: Acreage is fairly steady but I think that you’ll see some shifts in that and I think you’ll see some increasing in acreage which is probably typical because there’s a lot of excitement about the crop. Supplies of pears right now is steady, worldwide. Europe is flat, supplies flat. In China, everybody is afraid of China.

But there are some challenges.

SEAVERT: Food safety issues, regulatory issues, trade issues. You’ve got Russia You lost a half a million boxes of exports to Russia but then again the crop is down about half a million boxes so it’s kind of a wash but future years there’s going to be a lot of geopolitical things going on around the world, terrorism and so forth that’s going to make export really interesting and challenging. And value of the dollar.

More tomorrow.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.