Expecting A Big Apple Crop

Expecting A Big Apple Crop. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

This has been one of those years where all the conditions have been pretty much just right for crops here in the northwest. A record cherry crop, a potential record grape harvest and now the president of the Washington Apple Commission, Todd Fryhover, says this years apple crop translates to a big number.

FRYHOVER: 140,190,000 is a large crop, there’s no question about that. But when you sit down and you really analyze that number, number one; we knew this crop was coming. This is the on year and it is very predictable that we would see a number such as this so the industry was not caught off guard. Number two; when you look at the increases it’s all in the new varieties. We see an increase in Gala, in Honey Crisp, in Cripps Pink, in Fuji. So those things match with the demand that’s out there now for Washington.

The varietal structure has been changing in the last few years and Fryhover says the industry has been supporting that.

FRYHOVER: The 2012 apple crop was the largest to date and it was just slightly over 128-million bushels. So we’re up somewhere around 11, 11.5 million cartons more than our previous high. But again, you know the varietal structure is much more positive than what we anticipated.

Last weeks Russian ban on U.S. ag products including apples will hurt the market a bit but Fryhover says in the grand scheme of things it shouldn’t do a lot of damage as they move this new, record crop.

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