With more than 40 percent of his acreage in the New Zealand apple varieties Pacific Rose and Jazz, Scott Smith admits he's taken a big gamble. But planting new varieties has been his strategy for surviving in the Washington State tree fruit industry as a small grower and packer. Smith's company, Smith & Nelson, in Tonasket, just 20 miles south of the Canadian border, is one of few remaining fruit packers in the area. Thirty years ago, there were more than 80 packing houses in north central Washington, with three in Tonasket alone. Today, there are barely 20 in the region. For many years, producers in the northern districts earned a premium by producing high-quality stripey Red Delicious for the export market. But as production grew, premiurns shrank, and the Asian financial crisis of 1997 plunged many producers and packers into financial difficulties.
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