Rantz: Business owner blasts Washington Democrats, as he closes cider taproom to move to Tenn.

Daniel Washam made the difficult decision to close D’s Wicked Cider in Kennewick over the weekend. Thanks to Washington Democrats, he says his industry is in shambles and it’s only going to get worse. It’s why he’s moving to Tennessee.

From efforts to save salmon, which impacts the water supply reaching farmland, and the “astronomical” land costs, to business and gas tax hikes from Democrats, Washam would have to raise prices of his cider too high. It made running the business untenable, arguing the costs of doing business haven’t come down much since the start of the COVID pandemic.

“The people that live in the city can, they’re only going to pay so much for an apple. They’re only going to pay so much for a six pack, right? If everybody takes their beer and their cider, their wine, whatever, and it becomes $100 a package, pretty sure there’s going to be a whole lot less drinking going on because of just simply what we can afford,” Washam explained on “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH.

Washam says he didn’t go a day without a customer who said they were feeling financially pinched. But he fears that farmers are going to be hit the hardest.

Too expensive to operate

Cities are growing and development is going up in areas nearer to farmlands. That’s raising the price for farmers.

Some will sell their land to developers for housing and then set up their farms somewhere else but that takes time. Others will stay but raise their prices due to both land and labor costs. Washington Democrats forced farmers into paying seasonal workers overtime. But that’s become too expensive, so they cut down on the labor hours, which impacts their crops.

“Well, 40% of the fruit, roughly, depending on the orchard, got left in the orchards because the juice quality, the low-quality Apple. That’s what we make juice and concentrate and all these products out of. You couldn’t afford to harvest them and sell them for a profit or even break even,” Washam explained. “So, the farmers went, ‘Well, I’m not going to spend money just so somebody else can have cheap juice,’ just like I can’t make cider and spend money just so somebody can have a buzz. It killed it. That was the final nail in the coffin, and it’s just made the costs too expensive. There’s no margin left in the ingredients that I can afford to have a facility now.”

Business owner warns farmers are being targeted

Washam is warning that cider makers, wineries, and breweries from the Pacific Northwest are closing up shop.

Locus Cider shuttered seven taprooms in Washington in January. The North Brewery, a craft brewer in Endicott, closed last September. Before the new year, Airways Brewing in Kent closed the entire company. Last week, Boss Rambler Beer Club announced it was closing its west Bend taproom.

Now, D’s Wicked Cider is closed. Washam and his wife are now moving “under duress.”

“We’re going to bail. All the research we did, we’re going to head to Tennessee and ranch cattle, go back, go back to my roots,” Washam explained.

He just wishes he didn’t have to give up on his dream because of poor policy choices.

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