Early Apple Outlook Part 2

Early Apple Outlook. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Optimism is the word for the 2013 apple crop. Todd Fryhover with the Washington Apple Commission says there are some expectations of a smaller crop.

FRYHOVER: Most of the growers felt that the crop volumes were down in comparison to last year but you would probably expect that with the record crop volume like we had this year. All were very optimistic from the standpoint that the quality looked to be exceptional. So there’s a lot of optimism in the room and I think people are very positive looking towards the 2013 season and as long as the markets cooperate I think it will be a great one.

Orchardists have not been idle and have removed and planted lots of apple trees over the last several years.

FRYHOVER: I think that this season has taught us that the total crop volume is really an unknown and that the new plantings that have gone in over the last 5 years are really starting to impact our volumes. Generally speaking the group felt that it wouldn’t be unreasonable to see a 10 to 20% decrease in total volume over last year. So it’s really hard to predict what that volume is going to be when we still have several months before we even begin harvest.

Up next of course is the cherry harvest which is predicted to be considerably smaller than last year and that was before rains moved through some of the major growing areas. No word yet on how that rain has affected the cherry crop although the apple producers welcomed the rain for their crops.

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