Washington’s Ag industry going strong

Washington’s agricultural production in 2010 was $7.93 billion and it looks like this healthy trend will continue in 2011.

Washington farmers produce about 300 crops annually and we rank first in the nation for production of ten crops including apples, in fact, about half of all U.S. apples are grown in our state. The apple industry alone was valued at $1.4 billion last year.
But other important Washington products also increased in value:

• Milk had a production value of $950 million (39% increase from 2009)
• Wheat, $925 million (56 % increase)
• Cherries, $367 million (59 % increase)

That’s not all the good news for Washington farmers, who will be seeing new trade opportunities and lower tariffs on U.S. goods now that President Obama signed free trade agreements with South Korea, Colombia and Panama.

And on the subject of lower fees, last Friday Mexico canceled the last of the tariffs it had imposed on American goods in 2009. You can read an HDC Advanced post from July to learn how that tariff war with Mexico finally reached its end.

You can also check out this AP story to learn more about how well our Ag industry did in 2010 and what we can expect this year.