06/08/06 Trends in the Apple Industry

Trends that move the apple market. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. There is a lot more to growing apples than planting a few trees. That's a large understatement as any farmer knows. But as important growing that fruit is, knowing what drives the market for the product is equally as important. Welcome Sauer of Welcome Consulting and Analysis says there is room for improving the business. SAUER: This is a business. It's about making money. For a lot of us it's about a lot of other things about our lifestyle but in the end the business is driving us to have to make sharper business decisions. And I think as an industry we have a lot of room to grow in terms of using numbers, facts, data and information to make better business decisions. Sauer was speaking to a group of apple farmers during a recent seminar and discussed operating costs. SAUER: There's a lot of way to generate dollars per acre with a variety mix, with bins per acre, packs per bin, costs per bin, various changes in size and grade, and how we spread our costs across the number of bins or the number of acres. Sauer says getting good grower return means addressing all the profit drivers. But that by controlling grower induced defects, higher margins are possible. SAUER: Just doing that is worth probably more money than anything else on the list. I asked an agronomist; define for me what is a good grower. He said it's really simple. It's someone who gets up in the morning and gets on the ranch. It's someone who sprays on time, waters on time and picks on time. There is more money to be made there I that area than anything else on the list. Tomorrow, more with Welcome Sauer. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.