USApple: storage report displays decline

National U.S. apple April storage continues to decrease. However, the volume isn’t lower than the five-year average for the month.

On April 10, the U.S. Apple Association via its USAppleTracker report reported the total number of apples in storage on April 1 at 92 million bushels, 3% less than last April’s total of 95 million bushels and 16% higher than the five-year average for that date.

Fresh apple holdings in April totaled 66 million bushels, 3% less than the inventories reported for last April and 18% more than the April five-year average.  

Processing holdings totaled 26 million bushels, 3% less than last year on April 1 and 10% more than the April five-year average. 

Though Washington saw a storage increase, six of the seven top apple producing states — Michigan, New York, Pennsylvania, California, Virginia and Oregon — reported decreasing storage volume for the time period. The majority of other producing states, except for Ohio and New Hampshire, saw storage declines.

The leading varieties in storage, in order by volume, were:

• Gala
• Red Delicious
• Granny Smith
• Cosmic Crisp
• Pink Lady/Cripps Pink
• Fuji
• Honeycrisp
• Golden Delicious
• Envy
• Ambrosia
• Rome
• Idared
• McIntosh
• York
• Empire