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It's a great honor for me to be asked to be your keynote speaker for this fine organization.
And a terrific pleasure to be back in my old stomping grounds - to be able to say hello to some old friends - and to learn more about the huge 1997 Concord crop you just finished.
To elaborate on the introduction a bit, my wife Joan and I arrived here in December, 1955. We lived in 5 different homes within a few blocks of this church during the 13 years we were here, including a new home on Euclid, one-half mile south, with a beautiful view of the valley and Mt. Adams. Our three sons were born in the Prosser Hospital. We farmed part-time with Concord Vineyards, Bartlett Pears and Bing Cherries, so I feel a close association with the valley.
For 13 years I held the best job in the National Grape Co-Op Organization - the job Dave Tobin now has - Nationals' Area Manager here in Washington-Oregon. Lots of responsibility and action - a wonderful group of grape growers to nurture and work with - great job satisfaction - it helped that the boss was 3000 miles away and you only saw him 2-3 times per year. Right Dave? Of course, you've got the President of the Co-Op and five Directors breathing down your neck. When I was here, we had 3 Directors and the President was from Pennsylvania.
I felt bad about leaving the valley in 1969, for promotions within National Grape. I haven't really regretted that decision since I achieved those goals, but can tell you that the area where we now are, Westfield, NY, which is in the heart of the Concord Grape belt along Lake Erie in upstate New York, can't hold a candle to the Yakima Valley. You have a wonderful place to live, to raise your families, and particularly to farm and to make your fortunes.
What I plan to do today is run through some basics about the Concord industry - for some of you this will be a review of facts you already know, then spend a good share of my allotted time on some updated statistics and on changes that have taken place over the past nine years, since I last spoke to you.
I'll give you my viewpoint on whether these changes are positives or negatives, as far as you Concord Grape growers here in Washington are concerned.
I want you to know that I recognize that I'm talking to the elite among the Concord Growers of the world, the créme de Ia créme. Without a doubt, this is the most profitable area to grow Concords.
I congratulate you - most of you - on achieving the fruit grower's dream this year- having a big crop and also having high prices because your counterparts elsewhere had crop failures. You all look and no doubt feel pretty prosperous. I'm glad I didn't have to speak to you last year.
As alluded to in that nice introduction, I've spent my entire career - actually 2 careers - working very closely with the Concord industry.
After leaving National in 1982, 1 decided to try to go into business for myself and became a food broker - an Industrial Food Broker specializing in bulk Concord Grape products. So, you're looking at an Industrial Food Broker with 15 years experience. This is a much different field than the retail food brokers you may hear about and that companies like Welch's use to get their products into the supermarkets.
Industrial Food Brokers handle all the various bulk ingredients used
by food manufacturers to make wholesale or retail packaged food products.
Bulk refers to packaging:
Will refer to brix, spelled B-R-I-X throughout my talk. This is synonymous with the term sugar solids and is a measurement of the pounds of fruit solids per gallon.