Fruitland, ID
Grant Kitamura is partner and CEO/CFO in Baker & Murakami Produce Company, a fresh onion packing entity in Ontario, Oregon. He is also president of Murakami Farms.
Over the past 43 years Mr. Kitamura has been active in promoting the onion industry locally, nationally, and internationally. He has played a pivotal role in the community, including his key support and dedicated service to the Malheur Agricultural and Extension Coalition, and his work for the passage of the county Service District funding of the OSU Malheur Experiment Station and Extension office. In 2013, Grant received the Alumni Hall of Fame Award from OSU’s College of Agricultural Sciences for his efforts in creating the service district.
In 2018, Mr. Kitamura was appointed to the Oregon State Board of Agriculture by Gov. Kate Brown. He has served as secretary/treasurer of the Idaho-Eastern Oregon Onion Committee which administers Federal Marketing Order 958. He is president of the Malheur County Development Corporation, the entity charged with developing and planning the proposed Treasure Valley Reload Center for transferring agricultural products from trucks to rail. He is also a past trustee of the National Onion Association.
Mr. Kitamura is a past board member of the St. Alphonsus Medical Center in Ontario, Ontario Chamber of Commerce, Treasure Valley Community College Foundation, OSU Alumni Association boards, and the board of the Idaho-Oregon Buddhist Temple.
Born and raised in Eastern Oregon, Grant is the descendant of Japanese immigrants who were interned during World War II. With his brothers, he is proud to be the third generation of his family whose roots are in farming and where they learned all aspects of production agriculture from their father.
Mr. Kitamura earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration at Oregon State University in 1975.
