Potential Apple Crop

Potential Apple Crop. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

The 2014 NW apple crop is still several months away but according to Todd Fryhover, President of the Washington Apple Commission, there is some very great potential this year.

FRYHOVER: Well I think there’s no doubt unless Mother Nature throws us a curveball in the near future, but things look good right now. We have a nice even crop of fruit. We’ve had no frost events or weather events or any signifiant problems and it looks very promising for a good volume crop for 2014.

That was not quite saying “record crop.”

FRYHOVER: (Laughs) I’m a little hesitant because there’s so many factors that play into the word “record” like labor which is a huge issue and if we’re talking about picking and packing more fruits than we ever have before we’ve got to get it off the tree first and that’s really the key factor but as an industry we have been planting more and more new varieties, there’s the potential for a record but again there’s too many factors that play into that final number that don’t come into play until we actually start harvest to be talking about a record today.

Washington Farm Labor Association is projecting the possibility of a 20% shortage of hands to pick this year’s apple crop. One thing is sure is that the apple crop is changing and we will talk more about that tomorrow.

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