Taiwan lifts ban on state apples

Thursday, April 28, 2005

By BRAD WONG
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Taiwan yesterday dropped its four-month ban on U.S. apples, which had taken a juicy bite out of the income of Washington state growers, after an agreement was reached on closer inspections for a codling moth that devastates the fruit.

The Northwest Horticultural Council, a Yakima-based industry group, estimates the ban has cost Northwest apple growers and packers about $25 million in sales this selling season, which started in September.

Taiwanese officials blocked U.S. apple imports in late December after health inspectors there found codling moths on three occasions in apples from Washington, California and Oregon.

The discoveries of the moths triggered the ban, which is permissible under a U.S.-Taiwanese agreement. Northwest growers estimate that they would have sold 350 million apples to Taiwan this season had the ban not been enacted, according to Mike Willett, the council's vice president for scientific affairs.

To date, only 190 million apples have been sold to Taiwan, which also imports the fruit from Chile, South Africa and Australia. A surplus of apples has prompted Northwest growers to discount prices to sell the fruit that would have gone to Taiwan in other markets.

"Obviously, it would have been a lot better to have been in the market two or three months ago. We could have sold that much more product," Willett said.

The new agreement with Taiwan calls for apple-packing employees to receive classes and literature about spotting the moth and the damage larvae create by living in the fruit's flesh.

Growers also will be required to increase orchard inspections.

It is unclear how the non-native codling moth arrived in the Northwest.

Willett said the moths found in Taiwan, traditionally Washington state's third- or fourth-largest apple export market, were not the result of widespread infestation.

Rather, he said, it was because of the large volumes of apples sold, and the statistical probability that some had moths.

Growers can use pesticides to kill the moths, or they can flood an infested area with the female moth's hormone. The hormone can stop the moths from mating because it confuses males, who are in search of females.

In Brewster, Richard Thomason, one of about 2,000 apple growers in the state, welcomed the news. Some apple-packing lines have cut back on work, partly because of the apple ban, he said.

"Exports are just critical. We don't have enough markets in the United States to take all the apples that we have," said Thomason, who also is a plant engineer with Brewster Heights Packing Inc.

P-I reporter Brad Wong can be reached at 206-448-8137 or bradwong@seattlepi.com

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