WASHINGTON APPLE: Export markets shrink as a result of trade disputes over 20% output growth in the new season starts next month
2019-09-04 點擊：1365
Washington Apple's 2019 production season is about to start in September. Exports are facing enormous challenges due to trade disputes.
According to U.S. media reports, Apple in Washington will start the 2019 season on September 1, and its output is expected to increase by 20% compared with last year. However, due to trade disputes, it is a shrinking market that is accompanied by its output growth.
"Exports will face challenges," said Mark Powers, chairman of the Northwest Horticultural Council.
In 2018, China imposed a 50% tariff on American apples, which sharply reduced its exports to China by 20%. In the 2019/20 season, China may face more devastating effects. "If output is higher than last year, there is a corresponding need to increase exports," Powers said, but global traders are reluctant to pay for 50% of tariffs.
Washington State is the largest apple producer in the United States, accounting for about 58% of the country's apple production, followed by New York State, accounting for 11%. This year, the output of apples in Washington is expected to be 137.3 million boxes (40 pounds, about 1.814 kilograms), compared with 116 million boxes in the 2018 season.
Over the past year, 30% of the state's output was exported overseas, but tariffs and changing markets have hampered Apple sales this season.
For example, India, the third largest export market in the state, after nine months of tariff threats, finally raised the US Apple tariff to 70% in June 2019, resulting in a 67% reduction in Washington apple exports in the 2018-19 quarter.
China is the sixth largest export market for Apple in Washington. "Exports are not very large, but they are a high-value market," said Toni Lynn Adams, Outreach Communications Coordinator of the Washington Apple Committee (WAC). "Chinese consumers need high-quality products and are willing to pay higher prices for them."
Fuji and Red Delicious are two of the most popular varieties in the export market, so farmers who grow these varieties are most affected. "That's the supply-demand relationship," says Mac Riggan, marketing director at Chelan Fresh. "When a market is lost, demand will decline as well."