03/07/05 The budget and the fruit industry

03/07/05 The budget and the fruit industry

So how might the Northwest fruit industry be impacted by the Bush Administration's proposed fiscal year 2006 budget? Chris Schlect of the Northwest Horticultural Council says one potential effect could be a decrease in Market Access Program funds after two years worth of monetary increases. SCHLECT: That program has been used by our apples and pears and cherries to help with the exports and it will be cut from last year's level of $140 million down to $125 million. And it had been anticipated the law as passed should have brought it up to the $200 million dollar mark this year. And there are budgetary proposals that would have an indirect affect to the tree fruit industry, although some of those are still being studied. SCHLECT: Another area of concern are the Bonneville Power rates and the impacts on rates that might come about which obviously has a big impact on at least some of the costs of refrigeration and other things that are vital in getting our crop to market. But perhaps one item that isn't even included on the President's budget proposal is funding for the Specialty Crop Competitiveness Act, which was signed into law just last year. SCHLECT: It's going to be difficult this specific year to get any significant add-on money given the cuts that are being made but attempts will be made, but I'm not holding out a whole lot of optimism that that particular program will be funded this year. More on lack of funding for the Specialty Crop Competitiveness Program in our next program.
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