Oregon nurseries' prospects stunted by recession

Oregon's nursery and greenhouse industry, long the leading light of the state's agricultural economy, is in the depths of a historic downturn that is shedding jobs, causing bankruptcies and eroding the state's reputation as the best place in the country to grow plants, trees and shrubs. Here are highlights of a report on the situation that ran in The Oregonian:
 
A confluence of events -- a slumping national economy, a dramatic drop in homebuilding, lack of access to credit and ruinous weather the past two winters -- means many of Oregon's nearly 2,200 nursery and greenhouse operators aren't likely to survive what's shaping up as a rocky 2010, industry veterans say.
 
"It's terrible," said Scott Paul, who founded Alpine Nursery in Boring 33 years ago. "Worst I've ever seen it."
 
Paul views his own 50-acre operation as a snapshot of what the industry is going through.
 
Crews that worked six and seven days a week only two years ago harvesting and shipping conifers, shade trees and bare-root trees are now pared to two or three days. 

Rising fuel costs over the past few years have forced Paul to dramatically reduce shipments to his prime markets in the Mountain States and the East Coast. Paul sees buyers in those markets turning to cheaper but lower-quality plants, grown closer to home.
 
Now, with the crucial shipping season just getting under way, orders that normally are pouring in are almost nonexistent.
 
"I hardly have any sales for spring, and I know I'm not alone in that," Paul said. "What can I say? It's not good."
 
It's a stunning turnaround for an industry that, starting in 1990, launched an 18-year run of escalating sales and revenues.
 
For more than a decade, greenhouse and nursery products have ranked No. 1 for Oregon agricultural products. In 1997, the greenhouse/nursery sector outranked No. 2 cattle and calves by $650,000 in annual receipts, a gap that widened to almost $500 million by 2007.
 
But in 2008, driven by a nose-diving national housing market, industry sales plummeted by more than 17 percent.
 
When this year's figures are officially reported next September, said John Aguirre, executive director of the Oregon Association of Nurseries, expects to see a comparable or even larger decline.