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Summer Fruits California peach and nectarine producers GO IT ALONE California’s plum industry feels impact of that vote. by Melissa Hansen C alifornia’s stone fruit industry has gone through a spate of changes in recent years, from closure of long-time fruit packers and consolidation to substantial orchard removal. The latest—voting down the federal marketing orders for peaches and nectarines—brings an end to one of the two oldest federal marketing programs and ushers in a more indi- vidualistic approach to soft fruit marketing in the state. The U.S. Department of Agriculture cancelled the fed- eral marketing orders for California peaches and nec- tarines earlier this year, following referenda held during the winter that failed to garner enough grower support to continue the marketing orders. A majority of the growers supported the federal marketing orders but they repre- sented a minority of the volume. A vote on the federal marketing orders is held every four years. Amano Time Clocks Save You Money The California Plum Marketing Board is the lone entity of the state’s soft fruit marketing organizations that is still in business to serve growers. History The California Tree Fruit Agreement was established in 1933 to affect the marketing of pears, peaches, plums, cherries, apricots, and persimmons and set up a pro - rating plan allocating daily rail shipments. Quality con- trols for size and grade were included in the marketing orders’ scope in 1935. A “new” California Tree Fruit Agreement was put in place in 1939, based on the Agricultural Marketing Agree- ment Act of 1937, encompassing fresh market Bartlett pears, plums, and Elberta peaches. A federal nectarine order was voted in place in 1958. For the last two decades, the Tree Fruit Agreement administered the federal and state marketing orders for peaches, plums, and nectarines. The federal plum mar- keting order was terminated in 1991 and replaced with the state Plum Marketing Board in 1994. Fresh market Bartlett pears were dropped in 1994. Immediate impacts of the marketing order termina- tions have already been felt by the Plum Board, even though the plums were not voted out, said Gary Van Sickle, Tree Fruit Agreement president. Though plums were always a smaller crop than peaches and nectarines, with a smaller budget, the Plum Board was able to share many expenses with the other two commodities—field staff, administration, office space, overhead, and the like. Now, the Plum Board must go it alone. Domestic promotion programs for plums for the 2011 season have been eliminated, and grower assessments for the year were reduced from 7.5 cents per box to 2 cents per box. (The assessment on peaches was 6.6 cents per box and 6.8 cents for nectarines when the orders were in effect.) “The plum program has been scaled way back to run only the international work and support a handful of research projects,” said Van Sickle. The Plum Board will leverage about $82,000 of industry money with $500,000 in USDA Market Access Program funds for 2011, but that amount is only enough to support export promotion activities in the top five foreign markets, he added. In the With automatic hours calculation right on the card, the MJR-7000 saves you time AND money every day. Come in today and learn how you can control your labor costs with an Amano time clock. 310 E. Chestnut, Yakima, WA 98901 509-453-7115 q 800-327-9198 Serving Central Washington for over 100 Years www.goodfruit.com GOOD FRUIT GROWER JULY 2011 13