There's not much Tom Fuhrman can do to help GE Transportation Systems. He's not in the market for a locomotive.
There's not much Tom Fuhrman can do to help GE Transportation Systems. He's not in the market for a locomotive.
It's different with Welch Foods Inc., a key Erie County company with more than 400 employees at its North East plant.
Fuhrman, president of the Lake Erie Region Conservancy, said buying Welch's grape juice is more than supporting the local team. It's the most effective tool we have to preserve a major local industry and to fight off a rising tide of low-cost imported grapes.
That's what prompted Fuhrman to organize the Save Our Grapes rally held Sunday on Erie's bayfront. Our mission is to protect open-space farmland," Fuhrman said. "If these guys go out of business, that's thousands of acres lost."
By most accounts, pressure is mounting on retailers to buy less expensive imported juices. It's a pressure being fueled by retailers anxious to squeeze the last penny from their suppliers.
Just last week the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Foreign Agriculture Service held a public hearing on a petition filed on behalf of Concord juice growers in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
The growers are seeking help under Trade Adjustment Assistance. In order to get that help, they'll have to demonstrate that increasing imports have hurt prices.
Local environmental groups, including the Lake Erie Region Conservancy, lay some of the blame at the feet of Wal-Mart and other major retailers, whose low-price policies have given imports an edge in the U.S. market.
While those imported grapes might be cheaper, Fuhrman said they're not Concords and there are no guarantees about their safety. Many other countries use chemicals banned in the United States, he said.
Despite that show of support, Welch's, a grower-owned cooperative, is none too eager to align itself with the environmental groups.
"Wal-Mart is an incredibly good customer of ours," said Jim Callahan, director of corporate communications for the grape juice giant. "We have developed a great relationship with them over the years. Nothing could be further from the truth in terms of whether they have done anything to hurt the growers."
While prices in the cash market have declined, Welch's growers are largely protected from those market fluctuations. Although those growers are still presumed to be profitable, Fuhrman said he worries that it won't last and that a bottom-line mentality could topple an important industry.
"It could be an overnight thing where we can't compete anymore," he said. "This is an area where the average person can help," Fuhrman said. "We can't go out and buy General Electric locomotives. But we can go out and buy Welch's."
On that point, said Callahan, the environmental groups and the juice company can agree.
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