This week’s USApple Harvest Wrap Up webinar reported notable trends in this fall’s national apple harvest. While in August, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) projected total U.S. apple production for the 2023/2024 crop to be 236 million bushels, following the USApple Outlook Conference in Chicago, the adjusted number was 256 million bushels. (While the USDA number included the seven top apple-producing states, the association’s number added in production numbers from all apple-producing states.)
By state, the breakdown includes:
Washington: The country’s largest growing region was expected to produce 160 million bushels for the 2023-2024 season.
Photo: US Apple Association
Michigan: This Midwestern state was projected to hit 32 million bushels.
New York: 28 million bushels of apples were expected to be grown in New York state this season.
Pennsylvania, California, Virginia and Oregon were expected to account for 20-25 million bushels while the remaining states added up to 14 million bushels for the 2023-2024 season.
Fresh vs. processing updates
According to a monthly survey, November’s monthly storage reports indicated that there were 190 million bushels in holdings--140 million for fresh and 51 million bushels for processing. “The last time we had a total holdings of this size was November 2014-2015 season. November storages for that season were 188 million bushels,” said Christopher Gerlach, director of industry analytics for USApple.
However, 2014-2015 accounted for slightly more fresh production while processing holdings are considerably higher this season versus the holdings of 2014-2015--51 million bushels vs. 44 million then. “I think a lot of that has to do with the down market this year given the crop last year that we had and the fact that processors were able to fill up their coffers with last season’s apples,” said Gerlach.
Washington reported 152 million bushels in storage, nearly 40 percent above last November’s numbers and equivalent to nearly 42 million bushels of year-over-year (YOY) growth. “That accounts for about 90 percent of the national growth. Washington’s YOY increase was like combining an additional Michigan and Pennsylvania production year. It’s a huge number of additional bushels to come onto the market,” Gerlach noted.
Photo: US Apple Association
New York holdings up
In New York, 15 million bushes were in storage which is about a 44 percent YOY increase--a figure that largely accounted for the remainder of the national growth.
Michigan reported 12 million bushels in storage, a six percent decrease in YOY numbers. “It is about one million bushels less than last year but they’re still above the five-year average,” says Gerlach.
In all, these states account for about 94 percent of the remaining storage.
On a varietal note, Honeycrisp swapped with Gala this year to become the largest varietal in storage with 30 million bushels--a 62 percent YOY increase. Galas sat just below that with 29 million bushels in storage in November, a 12 percent YOY increase.
Red Delicious had 26 million bushels which is a 44 percent increase; Granny Smith with 23 million bushels or a 61 percent YOY increase; and Fujis were up 17 percent.
Other varieties outside the top five noted were 13 million bushels or 16 percent down, though part of that is due to Envy being removed from the category and appearing as its own line variety. (Should Envy have stayed in the category, the holdings would have been reported at a 10 percent YOY increase.)
While Envy, a managed variety with 4.2 million bushels, earned its place and replaced Braeburn at the top of the table, in the managed variety category, Cosmic Crisp continues to grow with 9.5 million bushels in holdings--up 41 percent.
For more information:
Christopher Gerlach
US Apple Association
Tel: +1 (703) 442-8850
[email protected]
www.usapple.org