As the world economy has continued to globalize in recent years, the U.S. has exported increasingly more fresh fruits and vegetables in addition to grain, meat, and processed foods. The establishment of world economic bodies has liberalized the international trade of agricultural products but there are still trade barriers. This article explores how the global economy exerts an influence on restructuring of local agrarian economy and its location through the apple industry in Washington State. Since the 1950s, various improvements in the growing, storage, and shipping technology have made the Washington apple industry more sophisticated and more efficient. Despite the potential to produce abundant apples in Washington State, fresh apple consumption in the United States has been sluggish and apple prices have been stagnant. As the improvement of this situation, the Washington apple industry has come to focus on export, taking advantage of the fresh apple market outside the U.S. Today, Washington State has become the largest area of the apple production in the U.S. due to the efforts of the large-scale orchardists whose size has been enlarged, whereas smaller family farms have been disappeared. Large apple producing areas like Washington State have taken advantages in the competition with other producing areas when they export fresh apples. Some countries, for example Mexico, Japan, and China, prohibit fresh apple imports, except from designated regions, and restrict apple vatieties because they are concerned about the spread of diseases or pests from overseas countries. Even as these countries grant permission, import states oblige producers and exporters to strictly inspect the fruits and orchards and to utilize phytosanitation at the expense of the-exporters. As a result, small producing areas find it difficult to participate in export programs. In addition, steep increases of export occasionally provoke complaints, where import states accuse the export state of dumping, and glutting the domestic market. The concentration of apple production and the transformation of apple industry in Washington State are related to the globalized economy and the restructuring is stratifying the hierarchical structure of the Washington apple industry. Most of the destinations of fresh apple export from the U.S. are developing countries, such as Mexico, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Malaysia, whose economies have been thrived in recent decades. When economic turmoil, however, prevailed in any of these countries, demand for fresh apples declined because its income elasticity of demand is relatively flexible. This resulted in depressed markets, which occurred difficulties to the exporters and farmers. Also, the Washington apple industry has faced on severe competition with apple imports and products. As the apple industry has globalized, the prices of apple products have become much more volatile, and numerous small farms have been forced to withdraw from the business.
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