US Washington apple shippers have lost out on lucrative apple sales to Taiwan ahead of Chinese New Year (a business worth some US$25m) due to local road closures caused by severe flooding, reports The Seattle Times.
Trucks carrying cartons of Fuji apples for shipment to Taiwan couldn't get through to Seattle late last week, as floods and mudslides closed roads linking Yakima Valley to the Puget Sound area.
'The difficult part is, it's a select grade and weight of box that doesn't have applicability in other markets,' Keith Mathews, executive director of the Yakima Valley Growers-Shippers Association, is quoted as saying. 'The concern is, we have packed a fair amount of fruit that doesn't fit anywhere else. We missed the business.'
The flooding — some of the worst on record in Washington state — was reportedly caused by a combination of heavy rain and a warm spell that rapidly melted snow in the Cascade mountain range.
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