04/13/05 Change in export direction, Part one

In the Washington Apple Commission's continuing evolution in the wake of the 2003 court ruling that ended domestic marketing, it has sought counsel from the industry it serves on how to be of better service. CARLSON: We went through there and reprioritized some of our goals, based a lot on what we had learned from canvassing the industry's input. And the result, according to Commission President Dave Carlson, was the definition of various goals. One is support of market access issues and the organizations that work on them. A second is the protection of the logo and intellectual properties acquired over the years. And third was to continue the export program. CARLSON: However, within that third goal, it was decided that some of the markets that are more developed & for instance, Canada, possibly the U.K., Mexico maybe & that have a lot of activity by the private marketing firms would be moved into more of a maintenance level and that we would focus more on emerging markets; bringing them up to a level where we could partner more with the private marketers. But that shift in focus, in part, also determined that a shift in personnel was needed. And as a result, there have been some changes with the Commission's Export Marketing department. The detail of those changes is the subject of our next program.