USA: Hop growers marked 50-year partnership

Northwest hop growers celebrated 50 years of collaboration beginning on January 25 with the theme "Golden Hop Celebration" and a look forward, discussing technology that will make the industry more efficient in the face of rising costs, Yakima Herald-Republic communicated on January 25.

About 150 growers attended the three-day golden anniversary affair at the Yakima Convention Center, said Steve George, administrator of the Hop Growers of Washington.

This year's convention is larger, he said, because hop growers from Washington, Oregon and Idaho met jointly, something they do every few years. Yakima is a logical meeting site because the Yakima Valley produces 75 % of the nation's hops, and is second only to Germany in worldwide production. Yakima is also the headquarters for the Hop Growers of Washington, the Hop Growers of America and the Washington Hop Commission.

On January 25 general session got under way at 9 a.m. in the south ballroom with a review of new technology, including a mechanical harvester called the "Perrault Harvester," an automated twining system, a growing system that utilizes lower trellises, and a hop vine-composting project. Thursday's meeting featured a report by the Washington State Department of Agriculture on a surface water monitoring project.