All eyes are fixed on the weather in Washington! According to Rebecca Lyons, International Marketing Director at the Washington Apple Commission, if the weather does not get any warmer before the beginning of this year’s harvest, the season is predicted to be good and should yield the expected 168 million cartons of apples (fresh and processed), which will represent 64 percent of the nation’s apples and a massive 15.7 percent increase from the 2015 season.
Red Delicious remains the number one in terms of volume for the state, but the recent years have seen an increase of Gala, Fuji, Granny Smith and Honey Crisp. A third of the production is exported, the two primary markets being Mexico and Canada due to geographical proximity, followed by Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Europe remains a difficult market to enter due to their extensive existing apple production and post-harvest treatment restrictions that are in place.
According to Lyons, the two main challenges for the apple industry remain mother nature and labor management. Sourcing unskilled labor during the short and intense harvest period continues to prove difficult. Packhouses are transitioning from manually operated lines, to sophisticated technology and automation, thus creating increased demand for more skilled and qualified operators from a limited talent pool. Larger companies continue to invest into labor-saving packhouse technology.
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