Still Pushing Apples

Still Pushing Apples. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Todd Fryhover, President of the Washington Apple Commission has been busy.

FRYHOVER: We were in Toronto for CPMA which is the Canadian Produce Marketing Association convention and there were a number of vendors with over 5000 visitors. We had wonderful participation by not only by the Apple Commission and the cherry people but also a number of shippers who had booths in the area and one of our largest shippers, Stemilt, did a sponsorship and just did a terrific job. It was well received and everybody just had a fantastic time.

Shows like the CPMA are vital for keep the export market going strong.

FRYHOVER: Well hopefully what it means is that Washington will continue to ship into Canada for the next couple of months. We’re trying to lengthen our promotion activities in Canada since it is our #2 market and looking into expanding our category up there for a longer length of time to assist in moving a record crop this year.

And yes, there are still apples to move this year.

FRYHOVER: We still have a very good supply of high quality fruit to last us for the remainder of the season for sure but sales have actually picked up dramatically in the months of February, March and April. Export shipments are up almost 10% so it’s going to be a challenge to get through the remainder of the season but with the good quality that we have we’ll manage to get through it in a positive way and look forward to next season.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.