14 JANUARY 15, 2015 Good Fruit Grower www.goodfruit.com
W
a s h i n g t o n s t a t e ' s
apple production will
continue to expand,
with a fresh crop of
200 million boxes
possible in the future, two top market-
ers predicted during the Washington
State Horticultural Association's annual
meeting in December.
Robert Kershaw,
president of Kershaw
Fruit Company in
Yakima, said when he
predicted a decade
ago that Washington
w o u l d s o m e d a y
produce 120 million
boxes, he was laughed
out of the room.
B u t p r o d u c t i o n
has surpassed that
volume. The 2014
W a s h i n g t o n a p p l e
crop is estimated at
an unprecedented 155
million boxes, up from
115 million boxes last year—a 35 percent
increase.
Washington is one of the few apple
growing regions of the world that has
increased both apple acreage and pro-
duction per acre, Kershaw said. "We will
continue to grow and produce larger and
larger crops."
Mike Taylor, marketing director at
Stemilt Growers in Wenatchee, also
believes the industry will grow in leaps
and bounds.
"The rate of change is going to blow
your mind," he said. "I think this indus-
try is going to move 200 million boxes of
fresh apples—not in the next five years,
but in the future for sure."
Discussion moderator Bruce Grim,
retiring executive director of the Hort
Association, recalled the tough years of
the 1990s when the industry suffered
low prices that were attributed to record
crops.
For example, in 1993, when the indus-
try produced a record 83 million boxes of
apples, the average f.o.b. price for all vari-
eties and sizes of apples was only $12.88
a box, well below the breakeven price.
The average price in 1994, which brought
Bigger
CROPS
ahead
Growers will
need to produce
niche varieties
and maximize
production
efficiency,
marketers say.
by Geraldine Warner
Postharvest