May 10, 2024

Apple storage increases

Apple holdings for May have increased by a third.

Fresh and processing apple inventories are reported higher this May from the previous May, according to a May 10 report from the U.S. Apple Association’s USAppleTracker report.

According to the survey, the total number of apples in storage on May 1 was 76 million bushels, 34% more than last May’s total of 57 million bushels and 32% higher than the 5-year average for that date.

Fresh apple holdings this May totaled 53 million bushels, 33% more than the inventories reported for last May. Processing holdings totaled 23 million bushels, an increase of 36% from last year in the reporting period.

Of the Top 5 apple producing states – Washington, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Oregon – all reported storage increases with the exception of Virginia.

Washington storage increased from 46 million bushels to 63 million bushels, experiencing increases in fresh and processed holdings. The five-year May holdings average is 48 million bushels.

Michigan storage experience a slight increase from 3.65 million bushels last May to 3.66 million bushels. While processing holdings increased from 1.331 million bushels to 1.392 million bushels, fresh storage declined from 2.32 million bushels to 2.27 million bushels compared to May 2023. The five-year average is 1.9 million bushels.

New York holdings increased from 3.8 million bushels to 5.7 million bushels, higher than the 1.9 million bushel five-year average.

For Pennsylvania, holdings increased from 1.9 million bushels to 2.4 million bushels, more than the 1.8 million bushel five-year average.

As opposed to April’s increases, Virginia’s holdings declined from 922,527 bushels to 722,742 bushels, smaller than the 821,494 bushel five-year average.

The leading 15 varieties in storage, in order by volume, were Red Delicious, Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, Gala, Fuji, Cosmic Crisp, Pink Lady/Cripps Pink, Golden Delicious, Ambrosia, Rome, Idared, McIntosh, York, Envy, and Empire. In the report, Red Delicious overtook Honeycrisp and Granny Smith bested Galas.

The report captures more than 95% of the national storage capacity, according to Christopher Gerlach, USApple’s director of industry analytics.

Read more of the report here.

The report’s individual tables can be downloaded here.