July AppleTracker: Fresh inventories tighten, Honeycrisp and Cosmic Crisp supplies rise

As apple harvest season inches tantalizingly closer, The USApple Association continues to issue monthly updates on where the segment stands as far as supply levels and inventories.

USApple’s VP of insights and analytics, Chris Gerlach. and his team tabulate the monthly reports based on USDA and state-by-state reporting data. While we’ll get into some notable data points from the latest report below, perhaps the most significant development from this month’s report is that Michigan — normally the second largest apple producing state behind Washington — did not report any holdings data for the July report.

“Michigan holdings for last month (June 2026) were 1.3 million bushels,” wrote Gerlach. “It is assumed that a portion of those apples remain, but all have been removed from current holding volumes thus inflating the prior month’s movement volumes.”

With that little bit of housekeeping out of the way, let’s get into the insights from the July 2026 report:

1. Fresh market inventories continue to drop: This insight tracks in that a new harvest season is close and the industry has been drawing down its fresh market apples (harvested during the 2025 season) for many months now. According to the data, fresh-market holdings on July 1 totaled 25.7 million bushels, down 11% from a year ago (28.7 million bushels).
2. Processing market picks up steam: With fresh supplies being drawn down, processing apple holdings increased 7% year over year to 11.3 million bushels. That means processors that create value-added apple products like apple sauces, butters and juice could be in for bargains as higher supply typically equals lower prices in wholesale dealings.
3. Overall, movement (ie demand for apples) remains solid: When it comes to reporting apple movement, the report looks at data from the previous month. USApple reports that June 2026 saw total movement of around 16.2 million bushels, which is up from June 2025’s movement of 15.1 million bushels. Drilling down further, fresh movement remains flat year-over-year at 10.9 million bushels (nearly equal to last June) while processing movement is up by 1.2 million bushels compared to last year.
4. Washington still leads the pack, but New York and Pennsylvania are gaining momentum: The apple king of the Pacific Northwest accounts for a massive 32.5 million bushels in storage currently, while New York (3.30 million bushels) and Pennsylvania (656,860 bushels) continue to increase holdings over last year’s numbers. What about Michigan, you ask? All zeroes across the board, since the state didn’t participate in reporting data this month.
5. Trending varieties continue to trend: At my local Meijer, Honeycrisp (4.74 million bushels in holding, nearly double last July’s 2.43 million bushels) is always featured prominently in the apple aisle’s end-cap display and it fetches the highest bulk per pound price among varieties offered. Cosmic Crisp (6.18 million bushels in holding, up from 5.62 million last year) is also typically higher priced at my local shop than traditional varieties like Red Delicious, Macintosh, etc., which are often on special for $1.99 a pound or less. One surprise this month is Granny Smith, which at 5.28 million bushels is up from last July. Several traditional varieties, including the aforementioned Red Delicious, as well as Gala, Fuji and Pink Lady/Cripps Pink, all posted lower inventories compared to last July.

You can view the full report with all of the latest fresh and processing market data here. You can also watch a video presentation of the AppleTracker data via USApple’s new “Slice” video series below.