09/08/05 Apples back in Japan, Part Two

Apples back in Japan. I'm Andy Patrick. Part two of our series provides both a look from potential economic and compliance standpoints. That's coming up on today's "Northwest Fruit Grower Report". The news that Japan has agreed to drop pretty much all of its fireblight regulations on U.S. apples immediately, in effect; allowing our product in as early as this coming crop year, well, it is not the excitement builder in the fruit industry that one would expect. One reason for this tempered enthusiasm is the last time U.S. apples were in Japan, it was predominantly Red and Golden Delicious & varieties that received lukewarm receptions from Japanese consumers. But Jim Archer of Northwest Fruit Exporters says the gap in trade time may actually favor U.S. apples in Japan this time around. ARCHER: Since those early days, we now have access for the newer varieties, and I think there will be pretty strong interest in some of the later varieties. Fuji's, Gala's, maybe Jonagolds, perhaps Crypt's Pink and others. From a practical standpoint, there really won't be much for the U.S. apple industry to do to meet greatly reduced Japanese fire blight regulations. ARCHER: That means that we will not longer have to do the orchard inspections prior to harvest. We won't have to do any chlorine treatment of the fruit, no chlorine treatment of the bins. All that will be required now is visual export inspections with a pass/fail starch iodine test if there are signs of immature apples in packs. But as Archer points out & ARCHER: I will be very surprised if we ever have to even apply that test. We don't ever ship any immature fruit and I just don't think it is going to be an issue at all.