Hazelnut and grass-seed farmer, Woodburn · Former president, Oregon Hazelnut Growers' cooperative · Director, Meridian Trust Bank
Salem · Meridian Trust Bank · 911+ connections
My grandparents were interned at Minidoka in 1942 and came home to find their farm sold out from under them. My father bought the land back, acre by acre, starting in 1962, with a loan from a bank that no longer exists. I farm it today: 600 acres of hazelnuts and grass seed outside Woodburn.
I joined Meridian Trust's board in 2016 as its first director with a farming background. In my first meeting I explained how an orchard's cash flow actually works — seven years from planting to first crop, one harvest, all the income in November. The bank's loan products didn't fit, so it built new ones. Agricultural lending is now a fifth of the loan book.
A farm has one payday a year. A bank that doesn't understand that isn't a bank for farmers.
Harvest starts Monday. Sixty days until the one payday of the year. If you lend to farms and you don't know what that sentence means, you shouldn't lend to farms. Meridian Trust has 214 agricultural loans with a single November payment date. Ten years ago it had none. That's what a board seat is for.
Drove the 1949 Model B in the Woodburn Fiesta Mexicana parade for the 19th year. Kenji drove the '52 behind me, first time. Succession planning happens one tractor at a time.
My father waved from the orchard stand. He says the '49 sounds better than it did in 2008. He would know.
Spoke to the Oregon Bankers Association about why a hazelnut orchard needs a different kind of loan. Seven years to first crop. One harvest. All the money in November. A loan with twelve equal monthly payments is a loan designed for a farm that doesn't exist. Three banks have since asked for the product spec. We shared it.
Established the bank's agricultural lending desk and seasonal-payment loan products; chairs the agricultural advisory group.
600 acres of hazelnuts and grass seed; transitioning to son Kenji.
Negotiated the marketing agreements that opened Asian export markets for Oregon hazelnuts.
B.S. Agricultural & Resource Economics, Oregon State University, 1984
Oregon Agricultural Leadership Program, 1991
214. And the Woodburn dryer loan makes 215 next week.
The hazelnut price, the November weather and the export market are page three of the Red Folder every quarter because of you.