Apple Harvest Update Part 2

Apple Harvest Update Part 2. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

There were a number of factors that led to a decline in the total apple harvest including the lack of workers and according to Todd Fryhover, President of the Washington Apple Commission, that led to some fruit being left on the trees but there is some optimism.

FRYHOVER: I think that most packers and sales groups are very optimistic for this year for a couple of different reasons. Number one, we do have a smaller volume of fruit than anticipated, it’s still a good quality crop. It still is sufficient volume to keep people in the market 12 months out of the year so things look fantastic as far as the general return side to the growers.

Small fruit can be a good thing when it comes to the export market.

FRYHOVER: The export numbers are off a little bit as you can imagine being 2 weeks late but still there’s a lot of optimism in the growth markets as well so the shorter crop, I think leaves us with the impression and feeling that this could be another good year for Washington apple growers.

There is of course a lot of smaller fruit but Fryhover says it’s not all small.

FRYHOVER: Depending on the variety but in general there is a little smaller sizing than normal out there specifically on Red Delicious. The plus side of that is that almost 50% of all of our Red Delicious gets exported and the majority of that is 100’s and small so that’s not necessarily bad as long as it doesn’t sway too far to the small side.

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