Pear Export Promotion Study Pt 2
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. A recent study seems to indicate the money used promoting Northwest-grown pears for export, was well spent.
Pear Bureau Northwest's Jeff Correa says the study took into account the ten-year period between 2004 and 2014 ...
JEFF CORREA ... "Definitely, you could say it's been a successful ten years. It kind of coincides with the record years for northwest pear exports. I think we ended, the last year for that was 2014-15 is when we had record export volume during that season."
Correa says moving forward with a new administration does give everyone involved in exporting pause ...
JEFF CORREA ... "Yeah, I mean we're concerned on what will happen with NAFTA because Mexico is our largest export market. And if there is a renegotiation of NAFTA and whether the U.S. decides to pull out of that, then that means our tariff rates will go up from zero to 20 percent."
But, Correa says it's not uncharted territory ...
JEFF CORREA ... "We experienced that for about a year and a half, I think, back in 2010 or 2011 when there was the cross-border trucking issue. When Mexico trucks were being allowed into the U.S. and back-haul stuff back into Mexico until a new program was put back in place and a lot of products, apples, pears, cherries, went back up to their tariff levels pre-NAFTA."
Correa says is not predictive, but does show a pattern of effective and profitable export promotions that led to an increase in export revenues of 8.3%.
Pear export promotions added 240 northwest jobs, generating $9.6 million dollars in labor income.
