Massachusetts Apple Report

Vol. 79 No. 7 OCTOBER 30, 2001

CALENDAR

MASSACHUSETTS PESTICIDE EXAM SCHEDULE

UMASS Eastern Extension Center—240 Beaver St., Waltham

NOVEMBER 16. Deadline for submitting application—NOVEMBER 9.

QUESTIONS CALL—617-626-1785.

NORTH COUNTRY VEGETABLE, FLOWER, & FRUIT SEMINAR

Cabot Motor Inn, Lancaster, NH. NOVEMBER 1. Registration required. Call 603-788-4961

REMINDER

Apples that are being shipped to CALIFORNIA, ARIZONA, NEW MEXICO, IDAHO AND UTAH must be certified by the Massachusetts Department of Food and Agriculture, Bureau of Farm Products, to have been in cold storage for a period of at least 40 days or more with the temperature at 32 degrees F or less.

Apples in controlled atmosphere must be in CA storage for a continuous period of 60 days with the temperature at 38 degrees F or less and said storage room or building has been approved as a controlled atmosphere facility by the proper authority.

Questions, call George Porter at 617-626-1800.

LAWMAKERS SEEK WAYS TO KEEP FOOD SUPPLY SAFE

By Larry Waterfield

More lawmakers are jumping on the ant-terrorism bandwagon and calling for new laws to protect farms and the food supply.

“Our nation’s food supply is at very high risk<” said Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., a key member or the Senate Agriculture Committee.

Roberts, who has introduced anti-agriterrorism legislation, says major diseases could wipe out portions of the food supply.

Roberts has introduced the Bio-Security for Agriculture Act, which calls for spending $1.1 billion next year and $2.7 billion during the following decade for a crash program to beef up food safety and security, develop new protections against terrorism and fund research to fight man-made diseases that might be used in economic warfare against the U.S.

“Frankly, I am very worried,” said Roberts, pointing out that one of the terrorists involved in the Sept. 11 attacks was trained in agriculture and had worked in Saudi Arabia on a family produce farm that grew lemons and other crops.

He said scientists in other countries have in the past, developed pathogens capable of devastating crops. He said these could be used to attack the U.S. economy.

“The loss of markets resulting from the introduction of these pathogens would be devastating to our nation’s economy,” he said.

Other lawmakers have proposed similar measures, including the Edwards-Hagel bill sponsored by Sens. John Edwards, D-N.C., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., which calls for spending $1.65 billion to enhance public safety through the Centers for Disease Control, National Institutes of Health, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Fully $450 million of this money would be devoted to food safety and security.

Edwards pointed to animal and plant diseases as potential threats, along with other biological or chemical agents.

Peter Chalk, an analyst for the Rand Corp., a Washington D.C. think tank, testified before the Senate that food and agriculture have been neglected by those dealing with terrorism.

“Not much attention has been paid to this critical sector,” he said. “It is vulnerable.”

The terrorism threat has renewed calls for a creation of a single food safety agency to take over the work now conducted by the Food and Drug Administration, the USDA and the Environmental Protection Agency.

Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., has again introduced legislation that would create a new superagency to oversee food safety and inspection. This time Durbin’s bill is getting more attention because he is linking it to the terrorist threat.

However, others are opposed to a single agency but favor beefing up the system with more money and staff.

(Article taken from THE PACKER, October 22, 2001)

5 A DAY LOGO NEGOTIATIONS REACH IMPASSE

By Jim Offner

As far as the U.S. produce industry is concerned, Canada is showing all the flexibility of a petrified tree trunk in talks over delaying an announced ban on products shipped into Canada bearing the 5 a Day and U.S.-mandated nutritional information labels.

The ban is scheduled to take effect Dec. 1 on all products shipped from the U.S. into Canada. Leaders in the produce industry are seeking to delay the ban until January 2003, saying otherwise the industry could lose as much as $25 million.

As part of their quarterly bilateral trade talks, government representatives from the U.S. and Canada met Oct. 4 n Ottawa to discuss the ban, which the Canadian Food Inspection Agency announced in mid-September.

The talks produced little movement said Donna Denison, United Fresh Fruit & Vegetable Association’s director of legislative affairs.

Ken Bruce, the CFIA’s national manager for the fresh section, said Oct. 11 that the agency anticipated further talks.

Kraig Naasz, president of the U.S. Apple Association, said the issue stems from a needless bureaucratic problem that is irrelevant to food safety.

“I thought our folks went up to Canada with a fair request, which was to delay implementation and form a joint U.S.-Canadian task force to explore options in this thing, and they had the door shut in their face,” said Naasz, who noted that the U.S. apple industry ships 5 million cartons of product year-round to Canada.

“It isn’t as though any Canadian consumer’s health is being put at risk, were CFIA to delay implementation of this until January 2003. This is simply a bureaucratic problem.”

Leaders in the Canadian industry say they also support a delay on the ban. However, some don’t share the pessimistic outlook of their colleagues south of the border.

“We met with CFIA officials and explained that there will be a significant impact if there isn’t an extension,” said Ron Lemaire, executive vice president of the Canadian Produce Marketing Association. “Everyone is looking for an extension. The Canadian market is very unique in that we rely on over 70% of our product as imports.”

Denison said the U.S. industry had supplied enough data to satisfy the Canadian government.

“They are asking for additional information, more specifics on seasonality and commodity groups impacted, which certainly leaves the door open for negotiation,” she said. “But we feel we provided sufficient information the last time.”

Nevertheless, the U.S. industry is working to comply with the requests for additional information, Nassz said.

Industry leaders are hoping to set up a series of meetings with administration officials, Denison added. Applying some sort of pressure on the Canadian government is not yet an option, she said.

“We have not gone there to that level yet,” she said. “However, we’re going to continue to push this issue and elevate it, because in the end this is a very punitive action by Canada, and we’re not going to let up on it.”

(Article taken from THE PACKER, October 15, 2001)

U.S. GRADES FOR APPLES

SCALD

This is a physiological disease of apples and has been a serious problem since the start of commercial storage and marketing. Scald primarily affects the skin of apples and is usually confined to the greener side. In most cases, it appears as superficial browning of the skin, but in severe cases the entire skin layer is killed and underlying tissue readily sloughs off. In some instances, the flesh becomes dead and brown and has the appearance of decay. Any amount of scald is considered serious damage.

APPLE SHIPMENT TRACKING

Source: USDA

Amounts are shown in units of 10,000 pounds

Season Begins	10/07/01- 10/13/01	09/30/01- 10/06/01	10/08/00 10/14/00	Total this season 10/13/01	Total last season 10/14/00
SEPTEMBER
	9,118	10,014	9,647	61,760	85,186

MID-WEEK F.O.B. PRICES AT MASSACHUSETTS COUNTRY SHIPPING POINT

Prices and grades received by telephone, October 30, 2001

There have been requests for price quotes on organic apples. To date, there is no source for quotes.

VARIETY	GRADE		SIZE		PRICE
McINTOSH	Cartons Cell Pack U.S. Extra Fancy		80s		19.00
			96s		18.50
	Cartons Film Bags U.S. Fancy		12-3s 2-1/2” min		12.50
	Cartons Tote Bags U.S. Fancy		8-5s 2-1/2” min		14.00
CORTLAND	Cartons Cell Pack U.S. Extra Fancy		72s & 80s		18.00
	Cartons Film Bags U.S. Fancy		12-3s 2-1/2” min		12.50
	Cartons Tote Bags U.S. Fancy		8-5s 2-1/2” min		14.00
EMPIRE	Cartons Cell Pack U.S. Extra Fancy		80s		18.00
			96s		17.50
	Cartons Film Bags U.S. Fancy		12-3s 2-1/2” min		11.50
	Cartons Tote Bags U.S. Fancy		8-5s 2-1/2” min		13.00
MACOUN	Cartons Cell Pack U.S. Extra Fancy		72s, 80s, 96s		28.00
	Cartons Film Bags U.S. Fancy		12-3s 2-1/2” min		13.00
	Cartons Tote Bags U.S. Fancy		8-5s 2-1/2” min		16.00
FEDERAL MARKET NEWS SERVICE, EVERETT, MASS. OCTOBER 29, 2001 MARKET ABOUT STEADY
NEW ENGLAND
McINTOSH	Cartons Cell Pack U.S. Extra Fancy		80s & 100s		20.00
	Cartons Cell Pack U.S. No. 1		96s		12.00
			100s		10.00-11.00
			120s & 140s		9.00- 9.50
	Cartons Film Bags U.S. No. 1		12-3s 2-3/8” min		9.00- 9.50
CORTLAND	Carton Cell Pack U.S. Extra Fancy		80s		19.00
			100s		17.00
	Cartons Film Bags U.S. Extra Fancy		12-3s 2-3/8” min		12.00-13.00
SHIPPED IN
McINTOSH	NY Hudson Valley Ctns CelPk U.S.ExFcy	80s & 100s		20.00
	Lake Champlain Cartons CelPk U.S. ExFcy	80s & 100s		19.00
		120s		16.00
	NY Hudson Valley Ctns CelPk U.S. Fcy	100s		9.00-10.00
		120s		10.00-11.00
		140s		9.00-10.00
	Lake Champlain Ctns CelPk U.S. Fcy	120s		10.00
		140s		8.50
	Lake Champlain Ctn FlmBg U.S. ExFcy	12-3s 2-1/2” min		10.00-12.00
CORTLAND	NY Hudson Valley Ctns CelPk U.S. ExFcy	56s & 64s		15.00-17.00
		80s		18.00-20.00
		100s		17.00-20.00
	Lake Champlain Ctns CelPk U.S. ExFcy	80s		19.00
		100s		14.00
	Lake Champlain Ctn Film Bag U.S. ExFcy	12-3s 2-1/2” min		10.00-12.00
MACOUN	Lake Champlain Ctns CelPk U.S. ExFcy	100s		27.00-28.00
EMPIRE	PA Cartons Tray Pack U.S. ExFcy	88s		19.00
		100s		17.50
	NY Hudson Valley Ctns CelPk U.S. Fcy	80s		19.00
	NY Hudson Valley Ctns CelPk U.S.ExFcy	12-3s 2-1/2” min		12.00
RED DELICIOUS	PA Cartons Tray Pack U.S. ExFcy	100s		16.00-17.00
	WA Cartons Tray Pack WAExFcy	64s, 72s, 80s		18.00 mostly 20.00-21.00
		88s