That's down from last year's record-setting 183 million bushels. The biggest news for wheat farmers is that the price of wheat continues to plummet. There appears to be little relief in sight as strong harvests in Australia, Canada, Europe and parts of South America are driving the prices down. Last year's Northwest bumper crop was also priced higher than normal because of drought in the Midwestern states, which has eased this year. Many farmers are expected to pay for storage of wheat in hopes that prices will start to head back up later this year.
International demand continues to be very strong, particularly from Asia.
But, unfortunately, supply is also on the rise, making any move made by farmers a gamble. In other crops, the state's sweet cherry harvest saw a very strong jump, rising 16 percent over 1996 to 85,000 tons. And the apple industry, which has been rocked by upheavals in the workforce, is expected to produce another strong crop of about 4 billion pounds. On the rebound is the state's wine grape industry, which was hard hit by a killer frost in 1996. But the prices of Washington's highly prized red wines aren't expected to drop anytime soon.