Washington Apple Exports Pick Up As Ports Return to Normal

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) — With Puget Sound ports getting back to normal after a tentative labor agreement, more Washington apples are being shipped to Asia. But growers say the slowdown of cargo this winter amid a West Coast contract dispute cost them an opportunity to find more buyers for a record crop.

"It's just starting," Eric Hanses, warehouse manager for Washington Fruit & Produce Co., said Wednesday as forklift crews closed the doors on two containers of Fujis headed from the Port of Seattle to Taiwan. "There are a few more export orders coming across this week."

Fresh apples are the state's top crop, and packers typically export about 30 percent of their harvest. About half those exports are shipped by sea. With a record harvest this year, the industry had hoped to boost shipments.

"This year's crop is 28 percent larger than last year's, and with large crops in the Eastern states as well, we were aiming to increase our exports by that much," Jon DeVaney, president of the Washington Tree Fruit Association, a Yakima-based group that compiles industry statistics.

So far, apple exports to Asia are up 9 percent compared with the 2013-14 shipping season.

"They could and should have been closer to the percentage change in crop size" — 28 percent — DeVaney said.

Shipments had been slowed since November because of a contract dispute between the dockworkers union and companies that own, load and unload massive, ships at West Coast ports. They reached a tentative agreement last week.

The slowdown cost state apple and pear shippers $95 million in canceled orders and missed potential sales, said Kate Woods, vice president of the Northwest Horticultural Council, a Yakima-based organization that represents the fruit industry in trade issues.

The slowdown cost them some the major annual sales opportunities, including Christmas and Chinese New Year.

"We missed a huge, major marketing window, and we have a lot of catch-up to do," said Danelle Huber, international marketing specialist for the Washington Apple Commission, the agency that promotes the state's apples internationally.