As wine inventory movement has been pretty slow since the spring, there is some concern in the industry whether there will be room in the tanks for the 2019 crop that is beginning to mature. Watch this brief wine market update with Wine Broker Glenn Proctor from the Ciatti Company as he explains, and read more in American Vineyard Magazine.
American Pistachio Growers’ (APG) efforts to reduce or eliminate trade barriers in several key overseas markets have been a 
significant boon to pistachio exports and to growers’ bottom-line. A new study, “An Analysis of the Effects of the American Pistachio Growers’ Program to Reduce/Eliminate Tariffs on U.S. Pistachios,” has quantified, for the first time, the direct benefit to the U.S. pistachio industry from APG’s strategic program to vanquish trade barriers.
The analysis from Dr. Dennis H. Tootelian, an emeritus Professor of Marketing, sought to determine what shipments of U.S. pistachios would have been if tariffs had not been lowered or eliminated in Israel, Mexico, China and Hong Kong, and the European Union which are the export markets prioritized for focus by APG. Many of his analyses centered on the period from 2009 through 2017 — the period in which tariffs were reduced in all five geographic areas.
Tootelian’s study showed that actual shipments of U.S. pistachios after the tariffs were reduced or eliminated for each export market were more than 2.3 billion pounds greater than what would have been expected had the tariffs remained in place. Equated in economic terms, the boost in export volume after the trade barriers had been removed amounted to nearly $3 billion greater value than what would have been expected had the tariffs remained in effect.
While Tootelian did not have any prior expectations of what his study would show, he was surprised by the findings.
“To see this kind of an increase in shipments on a before and after basis with the tariffs did surprise me. I did not expect this kind of result in the marketplace. These are not small numbers,” Tootelian said. “What the data tell me is that there is latent demand for U.S. pistachios and once the tariffs come down, foreign markets want to buy them.”
Tootelian said the projected economic boon to U.S. growers is even more profound if the fluctuations in prices in China and Hong Kong were eliminated from the analysis.
“If you take the price fluctuations in China and Hong Kong out, the increase in value of pistachio shipments amounts to nearly $355 million more dollars per year — nearly $4.5 billion in total from the time when tariffs were in effect to after they were reduced or eliminated,” said Tootelian.
Data from the analysis estimated that more than 1.7 billion pounds of U.S. pistachios in total, or an average of more than 192 million pounds annually, may have gone into storage if they were not diverted to other markets. While the effect of the projected added supply on the world market is unknown in terms of lower prices, Tootelian said that it would surely have had a detrimental impact on U.S. growers.
“It is unknown what that would have done to the price,” he said. “In order to divert from storage and into other markets, prices probably would have had to come down considerably and whether they would have been able to market that much supply is an unknown.”
Underlying Tootelian’s analysis is the fact that price is not the sole determinant of the volume of U.S. pistachio exports. He said when tariffs are lowered or eliminated, traditional economics would dictate that increased shipments would lead to lower prices, but his data show demand for U.S. pistachios in some key markets remained high in the post-tariff era. Several factors, he said, appear to be in play.
“One is the reputation of U.S. pistachios, which carries a very positive market image with consumers and importers. Second, it could be the quality of the product is better or more consistent, or both, for what consumers can buy from other countries,” said Tootelian. “And third, there are a lot of reputable health studies that show nuts are healthy and nutritious. APG has invested considerable resources raising consumer awareness of the healthful attributes of pistachios, and consumers appear to be willing to pay a higher price. That is pretty clear from the data.”
APG has aggressively worked in the halls of Congress, with U.S. trade officials and with foreign governmental bodies to alleviate burdensome trade barriers and create a more open market for U.S-grown pistachios.
“Quantifying the value of APG’s efforts to growers has been difficult up to now, but this new study gives us some tangible answers to the importance of the work we are doing on behalf of the U.S. pistachio industry,” said Richard Matoian, APG’s executive director. “Frankly, we were quite surprised at the magnitude of these numbers. It’s our strong belief that whenever and wherever trade barriers exist to the free flow of American-grown pistachios around the world, we will confront them vigorously.”
In a postscript to his analysis, Tootelian added, “If I were a grower, I would be encouraging APG to be doing this more in other markets because the greater the demand there is for the product, the less goes into storage and that helps boost the price.”
Today, the United Dairy Families of California, California Dairies, Inc., Land O’Lakes, Inc., Dairy Farmers of America and the STOP QIP organization announced a multi-phase process aimed at soliciting and analyzing industry input on California’s historic quota program.
Included in this process is a series of meetings, starting later this month, open to all dairy producers and interested parties. These meetings are intended to solicit various pathways for the state’s quota program.
1) This multi-phase process includes three key parts: The Think Tank, Producer Feedback and Analysis.
2) The Think Tank phase is for information gathering from various segments of the dairy industry. This will include the meetings identified below, where producers will be able to voice their opinion and contribute ideas or concepts.
3) The Producer Feedback phase will allow producers to comment and challenge the ideas developed in the Think Tank phase.
In the Analysis phase, dominant ideas from the Producer Feedback phase will be analyzed for economic impacts and legal pathways to adoption will be determined.
This process will be implemented with the assistance of dairy industry economist Dr. Marin Bozic and dairy market analyst Matt Gould. Dr. Bozic and Mr. Gould will be conducting an economic analysis of the proposed ideas.
The first series of meetings associated with the Think Tank phase are as follows:
● Tuesday, July 30, 2019 – 2 pm to 4 pm – Embassy Suites, Ontario
● Wednesday, July 31, 2019 – 9 am to 11 am – Heritage Complex, Tulare
● Wednesday, July 31, 2019 – 2 pm to 4 pm – Turlock Ballroom
● Thursday, August 1, 2019 – 9 am to 11 am – Washoe House, Petaluma
Meeting space is limited. All participants are strongly encouraged to register at
Walnut production research goes back over five decades. Each year, the California Walnut Board’s Production Research Committee recommends projects for funding based on industry’s short and long term needs. This year, the CWB members approved a total of 23 projects totaling $1.69 M for the 2019-2020 crop year.
Production research continues to be fundamental to addressing production challenges in the areas of orchard management, entomology, breeding and genomics as well as plant pathology and nematology. The Production Research Committee sees the slate of projects it approves each year as an ongoing mix of short and long-range approaches: Short-range approaches, which typically consist of one or more sequential multi-year (2-3) projects by the same team of researchers, are designed to craft management solutions for problems in today’s orchards. Longer-range approaches–which almost always means plant breeding–are used to craft solutions for tomorrow’s orchards. Historically, new varieties with better productivity and quality were developed through a time-consuming process of selection and testing of hundreds to thousands of seedlings resulting from intentional crosses of chosen male and female parent trees. Increasingly, new DNA-based techniques are being deployed to accelerate the pace of this traditional process for creating new varieties. And these techniques are now also being used to speed the development of new rootstocks. It is important to emphasize that the new varieties and rootstocks that come out of these efforts will still be the result of traditional crossing of selected parents and evaluation of selection of seedlings, just augmented and made more efficient by understanding the genetics behind desirable traits.
The scope of the breeding effort has also expanded: from finding productive high-quality productive new varieties that efficiently span the harvest timing window, to developing varieties and rootstocks that address orchard pest and disease problems–especially those that have eluded attempts to find sustainable solutions derived from shorter term research approaches. Thus, breeding efforts now focus on reducing tree susceptibility to walnut blight, husk fly, nematode and water stress as well as the traditional goals of productivity, nut quality, and harvest timing.
The Production Research Committee puts a high priority on striking an appropriate balance between short- and long-term research aimed at industry research needs. This balance fluctuates slightly from year to year and currently stands at a roughly 50-50 balance of short- and long-term efforts (Figure 1). Compared to other commodities, this is a large investment in the future of the California walnut industry. But our industry has always been forward looking: Most of today’s orchards, for example, are planted to varieties (and farmed using methods) developed through past industry investments in research and innovation.
The following are just a few examples of current research:
Breeding & Genomics:
Diseases and Nematodes:
Entomology
Orchard & Canopy Management
Other
In addition to the above, CWB also provides a small amount of funding each year to UC Farm Advisors in support of local applied research trials they conduct and their efforts to extend knowledge and use of the results of those trials among growers.
Figure 1. Twenty-three 2019 approved production research projects, totaling roughly $1.69M, divided by subject area.
As almond acreage and production continues to soar in California, almond processors and handlers are strengthening and increase their capacity to be able to take in the record crops to come. Blue Diamond Growers recently announced the construction of their largest almond storage facility yet. Watch this brief interview with Blue Diamond CEO Mark Jansen as he shares more details at the site of their construction and read more about it in Pacific Nut Producer Magazine.
Please thank our sponsor Duarte Nursery and attend one of their upcoming Bennett Hickman Almond Field Days in Pixley or Modesto.
How is the 2019 pistachio crop looking? What’s on the agenda for American Pistachio Growers Summer Luncheon coming up on July 26th? Check out this brief interview with Executive Director Richard Matoian for some answers.
With the annual Summer Conference of the California Association of Winegrape Growers came the announcement and presentation of CAWG’s Grower of the Year award, honoring Andy Hoxsey from Napa Wine Company. Watch this brief presentation honoring Hoxsey, as delivered by Randy Lange of LangeTwins Family Winery and Vineyards at the Awards of Excellence dinner in Sonoma. Hoxsey was also featured in the June issue of American Vineyard Magazine.
Although the 2018 Farm Bill did not solve all of agriculture’s economic problems, there was one specific provision providing funds to improve US dairy marketing that producers should know about and may apply for. Watch this brief interview with Dana Coale from the USDA Agricultural Marketing Service for more details.
Wildfires blackened nearly 8.8 million acres in the United States last year, highlighted in the news by California’s Camp Fire, the deadliest in that state’s history.
One of the many things that make wildfires so difficult to contain is the effect a fire has on local winds, which can move the fire in unexpected directions with virtually no notice. But, now, technology is being tested that may help firefighters keep pace with a blaze – increasing their safety and allowing them to better position their limited resources.
Xiaolin Hu, director of Georgia State University’s Systems Integrated Modeling and Simulation lab, is heading a project that develops drones to collect real-time data about wildfires, including fire front data and wind data in the wildfire area. USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture is funding the project.
“Fires generate heat that can have a major impact on local wind/weather conditions,” Hu said. “The constant interaction between fire and atmosphere causes dynamic and local changes in wind speed and direction that are not predicted well by standard weather models or expert judgment. The real time data collected by [drones] can help firefighters by providing fire location and fire spread information – and issue an “early warning” to firefighters if they are in danger.”
Hu and research partners Haiyang Chao, director of the University of Kansas’ Cooperative Unmanned Systems lab, and Ming Xin, professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of Missouri, are testing their “KHawk” drone over prescribed fires, and building new drones for autonomous sensing, navigation, and control. The new aerial platform features autopilot, thermal camera, and other specialized avionics.
The drones will perform test flights over prescribed fires ranging from 20 to 300 acres every year until 2022 to collect data on fire propagation and fire generated wind. The team is also seeking opportunities to collaborate with Kansas/Missouri Forest Service to fly over non-prescribed wildfires.
The drones will fly autonomously, given real-time wind/fire data and predicted fire spread information, under the supervision of human pilots and control station operators on the ground.
“The ultimate goal is to support the decision making of fire managers and improve safety for firefighters on the ground,” Hu said. “An important aspect of this project is to develop collaboration where fire managers and firefighters work together with drones in collaborative tasks.”
NIFA invests in and advances agricultural research, education, and extension and seeks to make transformative discoveries that solve societal challenges.
Anti-pesticide sentiment has never been more prevalent, as California courts and anti-agricultural organizations frighten the public with non-science based claims of the harmful effects of crop protection materials such as glyphosate. What farmers need to understand though now, is that much more than glyphosate is currently at stake. The legislature is now being pressured to change the whole pesticide regulatory system as we know it. Watch this brief interview with Michael Miiller, Director of Government Relations with the California Association of Winegrape Growers to learn more.