On March 20, the Washington Apple Commission voted to rescind the cap it placed on funding provided to the U.S. Apple Association in 2022 and resume funding the advocacy organization at the same per-bushel rate as the rest of the industry.
Facing a short crop and reduced assessments in 2022, the export-focused apple commission voted to cap the assessment funding it passed on to USApple at $1 million, short of the expected $1.2 million. USApple dues are based on a 5-year average of crop size.
USApple president Jim Bair spoke to the commission during its meeting in Yakima and shared updates on the association’s work on priority issues around labor and trade. Washington growers fund more than half the association’s dues, Bair said, but the organization gets most of its political power from Midwestern and Eastern growers who have the ears of their representatives.
Among the photos he shared of different meetings with political leaders was one of Phillip Glaze, a USApple board member from West Virginia, talking recently with the Japanese ambassador about opening access to U.S. apples in Japan.
“Would any of those apples that make it to Japan be from a West Virginia orchard? No. But every shipment that leaves the port of Seattle is a rising tide that lifts all boats,” Bair said.
WAC board member Cass Gebbers of Gebbers Fruit made the motion to restore the USApple funding to the full level of 7 mils per bushel for the 2025 crop. It passed with unanimous support.
“The cap was put in to address WAC’s own budget challenges, not as a critique of USApple’s work,” said James Foreman, who sits on the board of both organizations, along with Bob Mast of CMI and Mark Stennes of AgriMACS.
In other business, the apple commission reviewed its recent audit reports and financial statements; heard updates on marketing campaigns in Mexico and Canada, as well as a pitch to donate to Washington State University’s efforts to build a new plant growth facility in Wenatchee; and welcomed two new board members, growers Jake Robison of Chelan and Sean Gilbert of Yakima.
—by Kate Prengaman
