Agri-Bytes
In This Edition:
- Pacific Northwest potato representatives explore Central American market
- Growers respond to food safety rules by removing conservation measures
- Homeland Security rules may shift fertilizer product availability
Pacific Northwest potato representatives explore Central American market
A 10-member delegation that represented the Pacific Northwest potato industry participated in a trade mission to El Salvador, Guatemala and Costa Rica recently with the goal of potential market expansion.
Implementation of the Central America-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement is creating new trade opportunities between the United States and some of its closest Central American trading partners, according to a news release.
As tariffs are eliminated under the agreement, demand for potato products is expected to increase, according to the release.
Representatives included Moses Lake-based Washington State Potato Commission director of trade Matt Harris, Eagle-based Idaho Potato Commission vice president of retail and international Seth Pemsler, and Portland-based Oregon Potato Commission representative Lon Baley.
Using funding from a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant, the group contracted Washington, D.C-based consulting firm Allen F. Johnson & Associates to conduct seminars that promoted Pacific Northwest fresh tablestock and chipping potatoes in the countries, according to the release.
"The use of matching fund dollars from the USDA has given Northwest potato commissions an excellent means of providing technical seminars to help end-users gain a better understanding of our quality product," Harris says.
More than 80 Central American industry representatives attended the seminars, including importers, distributors, retailers and restaurant reps.
Participants were introduced to Pacific Northwest fresh tablestock and chipping potato varieties, growing conditions, harvesting and packing procedures, potato characteristics, uses, grading, handling and storage technology.
"I am convinced that U.S. potatoes could fill the gaps of annual local supplies without competing with local or traditional supplies, especially in the growing chip sector," says Lon Baley of the Oregon Potato Commission.
As a result of the free trade agreement, tariffs on U.S. fresh potatoes exported to El Salvador and Guatemala will be eliminated by 2020 from the current 12 percent.
In Costa Rica, U.S. fresh potatoes face a 47 percent tariff. However, once Costa Rica implements its free trade agreement, the United States will receive a tariff-free, tariff-rate quota of about 300 metric tons, which will grow to 384 metric tons by 2020. After 2020, the tariff-rate quota cap will grow by 6 metric tons per year. A metric ton equals 2,205 pounds. A tariff-rate quota is a two-tiered system where a certain amount of product is allowed into a country tariff-free. Tariffs are levied on any amount over that.
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Growers respond to food safety rules by removing conservation measures
Growers in California and elsewhere face a dilemma—how do they balance conservation measures that help improve water quality and wildlife habitat with food safety measures that may call for eliminating some of those same practices.
University of California researchers found that 8 percent, or 181 row-crop growers surveyed in spring 2007, had crops rejected by buyers because they used practices to improve water quality and wildlife habitat on the farm.
One respondent, for example, says he lost $17,500 worth of crop because of deer tracks in his field. Another grower reports the buyer rejected his crop due to a potential frog habitat.
Likewise, 15 percent of the growers, managing about 30,000 acres, had removed or discontinued previously adopted conservation practices, including ponds and reservoirs, irrigation reuse systems, and non-crop vegetation buffers such as grassed waterways, riparian habitat, buffer strips and trees.
But the authors of the study—Melanie Beretti, program director of the Monterey County Resource Conservation District in Salinas, Calif., and Diana Stuart, UC Santa Cruz doctoral candidate in environmental studies—say research shows that discouraging or actively removing such conservation practices could actually increase the risk of crop contamination.
"Keeping produce as safe as possible is a critical goal," the authors say. "However, the means to achieve this goal should be carefully investigated to ensure that those measures actually reduce risks of crop contamination, do not increase other human health risks as a result of environmental degradation, and are cost-effective and practical to implement."
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Homeland Security rules may shift fertilizer product availability
Arkansas vegetable and hay producers aren't alone when they fear they may lose a favored fertilizer because it can be used to make explosives, say Extension experts with the University of Arkansas.
A law that Congress passed in 2007 allows the Department of Homeland Security to regulate the sale and storage of ammonium nitrate and certain other chemicals, keeping them out of the hands of terrorists while allowing them to be used for agriculture.
Arkansas farmers and ranchers used more than 1 million tons of fertilizer in 2007, including 50,000 tons of ammonium nitrate, says Leo Espinoza, an Extension soil scientist in Little Rock.
Growers nationwide use about 2.2 million tons of ammonium nitrate annually, according to the Washington, D.C.-based Fertilizer Institute.
The Secure Handling of Ammonium Nitrate Act of 2007 requires fertilizer dealers and storage facilities to have plans to protect their fertilizer stores. But the handling regulations are complicated, Espinoza says.
"And to bring some of the existing facilities to compliance will require a significant investment, so many dealers will just stop selling ammonium nitrate," he says.
Many dealers and producers have switched to two non-regulated fertilizers: calcium ammonium nitrate and urea.
"The problem is calcium ammonium nitrate has a little less nitrogen content than ammonium nitrate, and it costs a little bit more," Espinoza says.
John Jennings, Extension forages professor, says some dealers still try to carry ammonium nitrate, particularly in northwestern Arkansas where beef production is centered. But some of them are finding that regulations and other issues are making it increasingly difficult.
"Some dealers and producers are looking at the other alternative sources," he says. "Urea is cheaper per pound of nitrogen and, in the spring, just as efficient. In the summer, it can volatilize during hot weather.
"All the sources are higher than ammonium nitrate except for urea, and it's cheaper right now. In cooler weather, it would be the best source to go with, by far, if dealers carry it."
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