Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/434639
22 JANUARY 1, 2015 GOOD FRUIT GROWER www.goodfruit.com cooperatives (with one person, one vote), and they live by the will of the majority. By doing so, they have welded 6,000 small farms into a larger entity that produces high yields of uniform, high-quality apples, with a great brand image, a good market share, and some market power, generating good incomes for the small participants in this larger enterprise. Moreover, while they continue to labor in the fields, they are highly innovative, adopting new varieties and new high-density orchard designs, methods for frost and hail prevention, and adopting machines that make their work easier. As a group, their continuing challenge stems from the consequences of remaining farmers of very small orchards. Because growers tend to have outside jobs and are only marginally involved in orchard operations, they are limited in how much they can invest in steps to meet quality standards or invest in the right varieties. The European machinery industry is eagerly working to serve the Alpine growers. IFTA visitors, who attended Europe's big apple show Interpoma during their week- long trip, witnessed the competition among suppliers. There must be 30 companies selling platforms adapted for pruning, tree training, trellis and hail net construction, and harvesting. The machines are built for the rugged mountain terrain and sized and priced for the small grower. There seem to be no ladders left in Italy. The industry The size and structure of the South Tyrolean apple industry was described for the IFTA visitors by Kurt Werth, an industry veteran who spent 30 years in the South Tyrolean Advisory Service for Apple and Wine Growing and is now a private consultant. In 1998, he organized Interpoma, the 400-exhibitor orchard equipment show held each fall in Bolzano. The 6,000 apple farms in Tyrol, most of them having less than 12 acres of orchard, produce about 58 million bushels of apples each year—about half the volume of Washington State and equal to the volume of New York State and Michigan combined. There are about 45,000 acres of apples. Only the larger growers—about 40 per- cent of the farms—rely totally on apples for their incomes. Yields are high, averaging above 2,200 bushels per acre on the best farms. To cope with their small size, the growers have banded together, first in small cooperatives, then merging their co-ops into larger cooperatives. These large co-ops pro- vide their members with a host of services. The two large marketing co-ops are VI.P—the federa- tion of nine co-ops of the Val Venosta in the upper valley from Merano west—and VOG, the 34 cooperatives of the long north-south valley with Bolzano near its center. The South Tyrol production area is an officially des- ignated European Union Geographic Production Area, similar to a wine appellation. It is on the sunny south side PHOTOS BY RICHARD LEHNERT/GOOD FRUIT GROWER With yields averaging 1,300 and often reaching 2,200 bushels per acre, the South Tyrol region supplies half of Italy's apple market and 15 percent of the European market. The Stefan Klotzner homestead dates back to the early 1700s, but the family's apple growing efforts began more recently with Klotzner's grandfather. No translation is needed for this sign on the Klotzner orchard. "It is a highly sophisticated and adaptive network ... of linkages that function because of the high level of understanding and cooperation among all the stakeholders." —Kurt Werth