Washington State Apples Growers are in Luck, Maybe…

Thanks to a reduced national crop the Washington State apple growers are in luck. The national crop is down in all sections of the country with a few exceptions and the national crop is expected to clean up earlier than normal. This will allow the marketers to not be in a big hurry to move the expected 99 million fresh packed boxes of apples and prices should remain relatively high for most of the season.

Higher prices will help offset the increased cost for the growers and packers of Washington, but one of the unanswered questions is, will the world economy and the national economy be able to stand the fairly high retail prices? If the U.S. dollar moves higher, will this slow down export demand? Are there new credit risks selling certain countries because of the world- wide recession?

The other concern with this year’s crop is that the overall size of apples on the tree is smaller than average. This could give the marketers a new challenge to move smaller sized apples to the retail outlets who usually demand larger sized fruit on the rack.

The crop is mostly still hanging on the tree. After the crop is in the barn we will know what the size breakdown will be. One of the other concerns is that the later varieties, such as the Pink Lady and Fuji, could be affected by early winter weather. This is because the apples are being harvested two weeks later than normal. These new varieties have to wait to be harvested so long that the fruit could be subjected to an early frost and possibly freeze on the trees. It has been a close call several years and this could be the year that it could happen due to the later harvest dates.