Protection sought for Maine apple growers

Maine and a handful of other states are urging the federal government to act aggressively to protect U.S. apple growers from low-priced imports of Chinese apple juice concentrate.

The U.S. Commerce Department is set to give its annual review to the tariffs it placed on Chinese imports two years ago.

Judy Dimock, a Madison apple grower, said the Chinese imports threaten Maine’s apple industry. The state has about 100 family apple farms that produced $10 million worth of fruit in 2000, the last year figures are available from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“I think it’s a concern for everyone in the industry,” Dimock said. “It’s been a number of years that this has been a problem.”

The Commerce Department ruled two years ago that China was illegally dumping apple juice concentrate into the U.S. market at prices below the cost of production. The department imposed anti-dumping duties of up to 52 percent on imports of Chinese concentrate.

Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, and senators from Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Michigan have written Commerce Secretary Donald Evans asking for a thorough review of those tariffs.

Even with tariffs in place, imports of the Chinese product have continued to grow. According to the Department of Commerce, last year China shipped 212.6 million liters of frozen and unfrozen concentrate to the United States, up from 147.8 liters in 1999.

“Chinese dumping of apple juice concentrate has threatened – and in some cases destroyed – the viability of American growers and producers,” Snowe said.

The imports pose a particular problem for Maine growers because what they can’t sell as fresh, they sell for juice at a much lower price. The price Maine growers get for juice apples has plummeted in recent years from 8 cents per pound to a penny or two.

Dimock argued that food should get more protection because of the security threat of depending on other nations for food.

“Do we want all that food production to go overseas? I don’t think so,” Dimock said.