Oregon farmers sell more than $2 billion in agricultural goods like wheat, hazelnuts, fruits and vegetables and ornamental plants from nurseries to the global market. Higher tariffs could make prices at the grocery checkout line higher, but it could hurt farm business too, and much of the industry faces uncertainty amid a possible trade war.
On Tuesday, China announced it will impose retaliatory tariffs on some U.S. farm goods like corn, wheat, soybeans, beef and pork entering its borders. Canada also released a laundry list of tariffs it will put on U.S. goods, while Mexican leaders say they will release their list Sunday.
Bob Wymore, president of Diamond Fruit Growers – a pear growers' cooperative based in Hood River – said Canada and Mexico are popular markets for many pear varieties the cooperative sells. He said the group is still moving pears from the previous harvest season.
“To disrupt it right now, it causes us a lot of headaches, and it makes it difficult to finish the season. It’s a perishable crop,” he said, referring to the effect tariffs will have on Oregon pears.
“We have a plan in place, and when you disrupt that, it creates a lot of issues for us, quality wise and it hurts our growers.”
Jeff Stone, the executive director of the Oregon Association of Nurseries – Oregon’s largest agricultural sector – said Canada is the industry’s biggest trading partner. He said current disruptions to the market make it hard for producers to plan what to grow in the future.
“It is extremely difficult if you’re growing live things,” he said. “And so you’re going through the process of producing a plant or a tree. You have a customer that’s in Canada, for example, the uncertainty about what that’s going to look like, it really hampers relationships.”
Farm groups fear this could turn into a repeat of what happened in 2018, during the first Trump administration, when retaliatory tariffs from China caused U.S. farmers to lose billions in dollars in sales of goods like wheat, corn and soy to that country.
