WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

Our unstoppable Ag industry

Washington’s apple industry was valued at $1.54 billion in 2010. That’s pretty impressive, but even more so is its almost 50 percent growth in just two years, to a whopping $2.25 billion — making it the first commodity in the state to pass the $2 billion mark. apples

Other crops in the 2012 top five were wheat, worth $1.18 billion; milk, worth $1.16 billion; potatoes, worth $700 million; and hay, worth $679 million. But there were also significant gains for cattle and calves, grapes, pears, dry edible beans, barley, canola, and onions.

All in all, the value of our state’s ag production in 2012 reached $9.89 billion, which, according to this USDA release, represents a 6 percent increase over the previous year. This is great news for the 39,500 Washington farms and ranches and the 160,000 jobs they support.

Washington is also home to great wine and there’s good news on that front too. The number of wineries in our state went from 534 in 2007 to more than 750 in 2012. And last year we hit a record grape harvest of 188,000 tons, producing 12 million cases of wine, generating 27,455 full time Washington jobs and producing a total economic impact of $8.6 billion within the state and $14.9 nationally.

These figures confirm that Washington’s agriculture and wine industries are playing pivotal roles in the economic recovery of our state. So go ahead and lift your wine or apple cider glass to cheer for our proudly unstoppable Washington farmers!