PRESIDENT’S CORNER
President’s Corner
Mark Jansen
President and CEO
“As the leader of theWest and as a country that has
become great and rich because of economic freedom,
Americamust be an unrelenting advocate of free trade.”
–Ronald Reagan
With the worst drought in 1,200 years, uncertainty in
water policy, declining almond crop yields, almond supply
shortages and rising prices, we have never been more
focused on the immediate challenges to our industry. As
a 105-year-old grower-owned cooperative, we are unique
among businesses in that we also think with a longer
horizon, including the confidence of eventual rain and
snow in sufficient quantities for our trees to recover from the
drought. If a strong El Niño pattern persists through winter,
we are three years away from a larger pound crop. Our
Blue Diamond
value-added product strategy was developed
for this outcome and our industry will also need a growing
export market. Even in a short crop the state is exporting
two-thirds of its almonds. Our reliance on exports will
increase as our crop yields return to historical levels.
The co-op has been building its export business for over
60 years. Today,
Blue Diamond
exports to more than 90
countries. Trade tariffs in Europe and Asia are among the
biggest impediments to selling value-added almond products
as the tariffs increase from commodity almonds to more
manufactured or consumer goods. The increased tariffs were
established to promote the country’s local industries, but the
result is at the expense of jobs in California.
One notable example is Spain, which is a large grower
of almonds, but still imports most of its almonds from
California. It then manufactures and resells California
almonds around Europe under the protection of a 10
percent tariff advantage versus U.S. manufactured almonds.
In fact, the U.S. agricultural market share has been
declining since 2000 as competition in nearby EU countries
increases. This is a clear example where the Transatlantic
Trade and Investment Partnership (T-TIP) trade deal with
Europe can create jobs for California and regain market
share for the U.S.
There is no more important region for U.S. and global
economic and security interests than East Asia. Competition
among the established and rising powers puts the world’s
most economically dynamic neighborhood at risk and only
the U.S. can keep the peace by creating mutually profitable
investments with Japan, China, South Korea, Indonesia and
the Philippines. The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade
pact solves part of the equation and a China agreement will
also be needed in the future.
Certainly, good news for the future passage of these trade
agreements occurred recently when Congress passed and
the President signed the Trade Promotion Authority (TPA).
TPA allows for Congress to pass these trade agreements on
a simple up or down vote and sends a clear message that
the U.S. is ready to finalize these agreements.
