About a Month Away from Apples

About a Month Away from Apples. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

It won’t be long now until apples begin coming off the trees here in the northwest. Todd Fryhover, President of the Washington Apple Commission says we are a little more than a month away from the beginning of harvest but there is a question regarding labor.

FRYHOVER: I think that the cherry and stone fruit deal is very indicative of what happens in the apple harvesting process as well so yes we have a lot of concerns about labor. There is an upswing in participation in the Hs-A program which is a broken system at best but it is all that we have to work with so we are very diligent about trying to get as many people as we can working for us right now in the cherry season moving right on through pears and into apples to finish up somewhere in November.

One of the things we are starting to see is a slow shift in varieties of apples.

FRYHOVER: I think long term, yes, you’re going to see Gala overtake Red Delicious in the future. It may be another two or three years out but that’s probably going to happen. Golden Delicious is decreasing in volume. I think there’s quite a few orchards that are being transitioned into other varieties right now. Honey Crisp is going to play a major role in that in the future. Some people anticipate that it could be our number two or three variety in the next five years.

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