2016 Apple Crop Forecast For Washington State

With The Fruit Grower Report, I’m Susan Allen, Today my guest is Jon DeVaney, WSTFA President of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association whose going to give us an update on the apple crop. DEVANEY: We did just release our 2016 apple crop forecast for the state of Washington. We are looking at a projection of just under 133 million standard forty pound boxes of fresh apples. that's a lot, its less than our 2014 record crop that was just under 142 million boxes but it up about 15% over the 2015 crop which was only 115 million. What we are seeing is that weather conditions have been excellent for growing fruit this year Washington state so our growers are telling us that they are expecting a high quality crop of good size and color that will likely store really well; So consumers should expect to see a steady and ample supply of fruit in the supermarkets for the entire year and really of enjoyable quality as well

Jon said that harvest has begun 1-2 weeks earlier as a result of weather and that consumers will have many varieties to pick from

DEVANEY: So while Red Delicious is still thenumber one apple variety produced in the state with a projected 25% of production, Gala is close behind at 23%, followed by Fuji at 14% and Granny Smith at 13% of total production.

This year Honeycrisp is forecast to come in at 7% of the total crop and Cripps Pinks at 4%