02/18/05 The Billion Dollar Secret?, Pt. 1

Yesterday, Jim McPherson of the Washington Tree Fruit Research Commission was sharing some very valuable information at the request of the Washington State Senate and Rural Economic Development Committee. It is the results of a recent economic impact study for Washington's tree fruit industry. The Commission along with the Washington State Horticultural Association sponsored the study as a means to put quantitative numbers behind the impacts the industry has, not just statewide, but in many ways, as an important regional industry. MCPHERSON: It's pretty simple. What kind of economic impact does the tree fruit industry have in the state of Washington? And we extended it to include the state of Oregon and Idaho along the way. The details of the study, titled "Washington's Billion Dollar Secret?", are not so secret now, thanks to a wide range of media publicity and appearances like McPherson's before government and economic leaders. So what are those numbers? Well, first to clarify McPherson and others behind the study wanted to go beyond the farm gate values to get a real world picture of how the tree fruit industry affects the Northwest economy. MCPHERSON: If we look at a farm gate value of around $1.8 - $2 billion dollars for our tree fruit crops, the real economic impact of that is much greater and we estimate it's around $6 billion annually. That one number suggests that we have a sizeable industry. An expanded look in the numbers in our next program.