Agriculture + Viticulture
Tri-Cities Area Journal of Business’ full-color, glossy magazine Focus: Agriculture + Viticulture takes a closer look at how our region serves as the powerhouse that drives our state’s agriculture and viticulture industries. This magazine is published in the spring.

Popular potatoes: Spuds stay big business for state
The sweetest words a potato farmer in Eastern Washington can hear aren’t about crop yields or perfect weather or the opening of new processing plants. Nah. What really rings golden is: Taco Bell is bringing back Nacho Fries. Or: McDonald’s now has all-day breakfast. And then there’s “loaded” fries, those deep-fried potato strips slathered in…

Hop crops: Market slows after rapid growth
The most recent hops data paints a picture that could be interpreted as an end to the recent boom for Washington hop farmers. But that does not point toward a fall back to earth, said Ann George, a Moxee farmer and executive director of the Washington Hop Commission, which serves double duty as the Hop…

Juicy fruit: State dominates U.S. for Concords
By Andy Perdue While the Washington wine grape market booms, even approaching the state apple industry in size and economic importance, there’s another grape industry that tops the nation in size: juice grapes. Last year, Concord grape growers brought in nearly 200,000 tons of fruit — 3 percent over the prior year, valued at $41.8…

Organic grapes: A natural tourist attraction
The growing number of organic grape-growing regions in the Northwest provide new opportunities for wine marketing around the popular buzzword “terroir,” according to a new study by a Washington State University Tri-Cities researcher. Derived from the French word “terre,” meaning “land,” “terroir” is used to denote the special characteristics of a place, said Byron Marlowe,…

Leading producers: Agriculture adds billions to state’s economy
Washington state is an agricultural powerhouse, leading the nation in the production of apples, grapes, cherries, pears, hops and blueberries. Supplying the world with millions of tons of apples each year, Washington fills nearly two-thirds of the entire apple market in the United States. It’s expected the current planted acreage of wine grapes could swell…