The Chestnut Grower

By: John Schmitz
Freelance Writer

Reprinted with permission from "The Capital Press."

The Western Chestnut Growers Association announced recently that it has changed its name to the Chestnut Growers of America.

New Chestnut Growers of America logo

With the modification comes a change of scope aimed at not only promoting the crop to consumers around the country but recruiting new growers as well.

"The purpose of changing the name is really to be more inclusive and hopefully we’ll get the organization to grow and generate some funds to put together a chestnut marketing effort," said Sherwood, Ore., grower Ben Bole.

WCGA was founded in the mid-1990s. The group was originally formed so that growers in Oregon and Washington could exchange information. "It started out pretty low key," Bole said. Since that time additional farms have come into existence in the Pacific Northwest, and most have done well in moving their small crops. But it has taken a lot of individual effort.

"The crop keeps growing, and everybody is able to sell their product," said Bole, who is one of the larger growers in the country with 25 acres of certified organic Colossals at various ages. He planted his first trees in 1992, and last year he harvested 12,000 pounds.

There are several challenges facing the national association. For starters, it’s estimated that less than 1,000 acres of commercial chestnuts are being grown in the United States by only about 85 association members, most of those very small growers. With dues only $25 for singles and $35 for couples, not much of a promotional campaign can be launched, even in the smallest of cities.

"There aren’t enough chestnuts being grown to make a nationwide push," Bole said, adding that the object now is to get everybody working on a small scale in their own markets and making it a unified effort.

Another challenge is that — should by some miracle chestnut demand increase significantly — there probably would not be enough producers to satisfy it.

Subsequently, increased production is going to have to come first, and that will take several years. What’s more, during the ramp up, prices would be soft as production will temporarily exceed demand.

One disadvantage chestnuts have when it comes to marketing in this country is that few Americans are familiar with the nut. To date, the majority of consumers come from Asian and Italian backgrounds, and some of that demand has been on the wane.

Bole said the new national association has discussed hiring a grant writer to help obtain funds from public and private sources. But members nixed that idea since all of the production is already pretty much sold out every year.

"The consensus was that if you don’t have the supply there’s no sense to try to push the demand," said Ray Young, a grower in Ridgefield, Wash.

Young, a retired Southern California schoolteacher who planted 10 acres of Colossals — about 650 trees — in 1999, said he would like to see more large growers enter the chestnut industry and join the association.

"Most of the members are pretty small potatoes, one and two and five acres. And also a lot of them are not in it for the profit, unfortunately. Membership is open basically to anyone interested in chestnuts. You don’t have to be an established grower."

Young sells most of his crop, fresh and dried, online and on the farm. He has been getting $4.50 to $5.50 a pound retail, depending on size. He wholesales 50-pound bags for $3.50 a pound.

About 60 percent of Bole’s crop is sold fresh to markets and restaurants in Portland. The remainder is sold fresh and dried off the farm and on the Internet.

Young and Bole have also teamed up to make chestnut flour, which is made with Young’s mill.

Since chestnuts are a small, niche crop with few middlemen, new growers will have to go out and find their own markets, Young said. But this gives them the advantage of setting their own price in many cases, he said.

"If you’re willing to put in the work, and willing to get out and sell them, it’s a profitable crop," he said.

The association name change took place during a recent meeting in Tualatin, Ore. Growers from as far away as Kansas and Missouri attended.

The primary chestnut variety growing on the West Coast is Colossal, which was developed and is grafted in California. Young said that in addition to limited demand in the U.S., chestnut growers here face stiff competition from China and, less so, Korea. "They (China) have hundreds and hundreds of thousands of trees. And they can ship in cheaper than we can produce."

Chinese and Korean quality is "spotty," though, he said.

The biggest pest Northwest chestnut growers have to contend with is the tiny shothole borer, which bores into the bark of the tree. "But there are lots of places in the country where it’s unheard of," Young said.

Young said he paid $5,300 an acre to establish his orchard, exclusive of land cost. More information on chestnuts is available at wcga.net or chestnutsonline.com/.