The apple harvest in the Aomori Prefecture, Japan was complete by the end of November and the apple orchards are already covered with snow. The harvest conditions were not great, but better than last year, according to Hideo Obori from Aomori Trading.
"The Aomori Prefectural Government officially announced that the prospective apple production would be about 421,500 tons, which was almost average for the last five years and 47,100 tons more than last season. But we estimate the total production of 2024 might be about 400,000," said Mr Obori.
"This summer the Aomori Prefecture was very hot, but not as hot as last summer. After our famous local Nebuta Festival in early August, the weather became mild. According to TV news Tokyo and western parts of Japan were hotter than last year. In our area, the apple trees were still fatigued after last year's heat, so the blossom was much less than average. Farmers tried to recover the volume, but some orchards could only produce 50% of the volume."
"Red apples and yellow apples are a bit larger, while green apples are smaller, but the brix levels are relatively high. We have around 5-9% less volume than an average year. More than 50% of our apples are the Fuji variety."
The Fuji is preferred in Taiwan, while the green Orin apples, are popular in Hong Kong.
"The Chinese economy is in recession just now which means the economy in Hong Kong is also very bad. It is no exaggeration to say that the entire overseas Chinese economy is in recession. So, we are doing our business very carefully now." Aomori Trading is in its second season of exporting apples to the UK, it was very successful last year. "This season, we tried early/mid varieties in the UK. Toki, a sweet and juicy yellow apple, was exported in September and October, and Meigetsu (beautiful full moon), a high brix yellow apple was exported in November. These varieties were well received by UK consumers. We are now struggling to export Aomori apples to the US for the first time in 14 years."
For more information:
Hideo Obori
Aomori Trading Co., Ltd.
Tel: +81 (172) 88-8115
Email: [email protected]
aomori-t.jp