Dec 12, 2023

Fresh apple storage numbers up 33%

U.S. apple companies are holding 33% more fresh-market fruit than they did a year ago, and 20% more than the five-year average.

The increase for apples grown for the processing market is smaller, but still significant: 19% more than last year and 17% higher than the five-year average, according to the U.S. Apple Association’s Apple Tracker report on Dec. 1 holdings.

Overall, the total number of apples in storage at the start of the month was 173 million 42-pound bushels, 29% more than last year’s total of 134 million bushels and 19% more than the 5-year average for that date.

According to USApple, there were 124.4 million fresh-market bushels and 48.5 million bushels of processing apples on hand on Dec. 1.

That’s despite year-to-date movement of apples for the fresh market: 15.75 million bushels of apples have been sold to retail, foodservice and other channels since the start of the season, compared to 9.6 million bushels last season and 12.15 million bushels for the five-year average.

Washington had 106.8 million bushels in controlled atmosphere (CA) storage and 29.16 million bushels in regular storage, followed by New York with 9.38 million (CA) and 4.59 million in regular storage. Michigan apple companies had 9.13 million bushels (CA) and 2.53 million in regular on Dec. 1, according to the Apple Tracker report.

The top varieties in storage for fresh and processing markets on Dec. 1, in millions of 42-pound bushels, were:

• Honeycrisp: 26.45
• Gala: 24.79
• Red delicious: 24.37
• Granny Smith: 19.49
• Fuji: 17.12
• Other: 12.26
• Golden Delicious 10.81
• Cripps Pink (Pink Lady) 9.90
• Cosmic Crisp: 9.16
• Envy: 3.43

Using the average for the past five years of apples in storage on Dec. 1, these are the leading varieties:

• Gala
• Red Delicious
• Honeycrisp
• Fuji
• Granny Smith
• Other
• Golden Delicious
• Cripps Pink/Pink Lady
• Cosmic Crisp
• Idared