Working On Indonesia

Working On Indonesia

Working On Indonesia. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report.

Trade with other countries is important to things like Washington apples, pears and more. Places like Indonesia are important trade partners until something happens and trade barriers go up. Then the bureaucrats have to step in and begin working on trade agreements to slowly chip away at those barriers. Recently the US took a step to challenge such barriers imposed by Indonesia which last year resulted in nearly a $200-hundred million dollar loss of exports. Indonesia has the fifth largest population in the world and that means the exporting of a lot of food products including nearly %50-million dollars of apples and $37-million dollars of grapes. Those numbers could be a lot higher if these trade barriers could be torn down. US Representatives Rick Larsen puts some numbers to the problem.

LARSEN: My state is one of the top exporters to horticultural products to Indonesia. In fact, we're the top exporter of apples. However, since 2012 we've shipped 20-million fewer apples to Indonesia, that's a 30% drop in volume.

US Trade Representative Michael Froman has taken steps to try and resolve the issue.

FROMAN: I'm announcing that the United States is challenging Indonesia's import restrictions by requesting the establishment of a WTO Panel.

New Zealand has joined the U.S. in the request hoping to see some movement on the issue.

That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.

Previous ReportMore On Fire Blight
Next ReportRed Mountain Project