Aug 25, 2009

Estimates Put Apple Crop at 235-241 Million Bushels

The size of the 2009 apple crop was pegged by members of the U.S. Apple Association (USApple) at 234.7 million bushels when leaders of the U.S. apple industry met Aug. 20-21 in Chicago. That’s about 6 million bushels less than the estimate released by USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service on Aug. 12, a week before the Chicago meeting.

USDA’s estimate is 240.8 million, the 11th largest crop ever and about average for the last five years.

Last year, USDA found 218 million bushels when it made its estimate Aug. 1. USApple said that was too high and estimated the crop size at 207 million.

When the final crop size figures came in, both estimates were much lower than the final figure of 232.6 million bushels. The low estimates led to many poor marketing decisions.

This year, state industry groups have gotten the message that the crop will take more aggressive marketing efforts, starting early, and some have already begun promotion programs.

The state-by-state production estimates, by USDA and USApple, for the six top producing states are:

Washington: Estimated at 138.1 million bushels by USDA, the same as actual production last year, and at 132 million by USApple.

New York: Estimated at 30.2 million bushels by USDA, 30 million by USApple, which compares to production last year of 29.8 million.

Michigan: Estimated by USDA to have 25 million bushels, while USApple sees 26 million. The previous year’s short crop was 14.3 million bushels.

Pennsylvania: Estimated by USDA to have 11. 6 million bushels, while USApple says 10.8 million. The state harvested 10.5 million bushels last year.

California: Has a crop of 7.9 million bushels, according to USDA, 7.5 million by USApple’s estimate. It harvested 8.6 million bushels last year.

Virginia: USDA’s estimate is 4.8 million bushels, and USApple agrees. The state harvested 5.5 million bushels last year.