10/26/05 Concern about Ya pear comments

The Yakima Valley Growers Shippers Association's recent letter to Washington State Ag Director Valora Loveland basically asked the question, "Why did she say that?" In last month's edition of the "Puget Sound Business Journal", Loveland is credited with saying she supports the importation of Chinese Ya pears into the U.S. And according to the Association's Miles Kohl, that led to concern among his members and members of the pear industry. KOHL: We would hope that our own Director of Ag would be working to get our product into China as well, but that didn't seem to be as quite a high priority in that article as helping to get Ya Pears into the U.S. The reason for Kohl's statement is two fold. First, a previous trade protocol that allowed Ya pears into the U.S. resulted in a U.S.D.A. recall and end of importation in 2003 due to fungal disease. KOHL: We're very concerned about the types of pest and disease issues that are not native to the U.S. that could be transmitted through these commodities, and we want to make sure that given how we are struggling to maintain our own pest and disease programs that we're not adding to that burden. But on the other side, U.S. pears have been denied access into China for well over a decade over fireblight concerns. Kohl and other pear industry officials point to scientific research that shows fireblight is not a threat or concern for China's pear industry. KOHL: The other side of that is we have requested access for our own pears into China for well over ten years now, which has been repeatedly denied by China. And their reason for denial is fireblight concerns, of which on going research indicates that that should not be a concern.