Although Washington State's bumper apple harvest is in its closing stages, the marketing period is just getting underway. At www.freshfruitportal.com we speak to some of the state's biggest growers to discuss strategies to ensure a profitable campaign with such high fruit volumes, how to store the fruit and plans in light of China's market reopening.

Although the initial industry estimate for Washington's apple production was around 140 million boxes, Domex Superfresh Growers marketing vice president Howard Nager says it now looks like it could reach 150 million.

In order to sell such a huge amount of fruit, combined efforts will be needed throughout the entire industry.

"Certainly there are a lot of things that are going on to successfully market that large crop, amongst the sales desks, growers, shippers, packers and everybody along that supply chain," Howard Nager says.

"Everybody needs to make sure that they've had the right labor, they need to make sure they've had enough bins, enough storage space for the controlled atmosphere rooms, and enough time to process all this fruit."

Domex expects to produce around 19-20 million boxes of apples this season, giving it a 13-14% market share from the state.

A representative of Rainier Fruit suggests it may not even be possible to sell the same proportion of fresh fruit as normal, and 'tough decisions' will need to be made.

"There should be an underlying understanding that not all of the fruit is going to be able to make it through the system," company spokesperson Suzanne Wolter says.

"So as growers, as packers, we need to make the tough decisions of what to actually put into the box, because it's critical that the consumer gets a good eating experience.

"We can't afford for them to have bad quality fruit in the refrigerator, so there might be fruit that we decide, 'you know what, it has to go to the processed market, or it has to go to the cow feed, it has to go somewhere other than in a box so that we make sure that consumer comes back to buy more apples'. That's the key."

Retailers will also play a key role in shifting the bumper apple volumes, and it seems strong promotional activities, good fruit quality and gradually falling prices have all helped keep sales moving.

"Going out into the stores I see apples at 99 cents a pound - any time you can get under a dollar that's a real attraction for consumers," Nager says.

"This time of the year they're seeing good quality product and good tasting product. This has been a vintage crop so the quality has been very good. That is helping everything move through the system, from field to fork, everyone has a role in moving this large crop."

Chelan Fresh general sales manager Tim Evans agrees low prices were instrumental for a good sales pace in the early marketing period, with varied ripening also playing a part.

"There's a lot of mixed maturity, if you will, around the industry, and pricing is continuing to drop in apples with the kind of supply nationally. This will probably be the largest fresh crop ever," he says.

He also stresses the importance of turning bins around quickly to get them back out in the field during harvest time.

"It is a monster crop, so everybody in the industry is faced with a bit of a challenge. But we're also seeing record movement, so that's been very positive to date," Evans says.

Trucks, storage and labor

Limited transport availability has been another challenge for growers in the midst of large volumes.

"We have needed almost 300-400 more trucks each week out of the state of Washington to delivery this product," says Nager.

"And that's been difficult especially this time of year as the Northwest begins shipping Christmas trees, so trucks are much more difficult to obtain. We have to manage all these dynamics that are going on that in order to market and sell the crop."

Labor and cold storage availability have also been issues for some growers, although Domex, Rainier and Chelan all seem to have overcome these problems one way or another.

For Domex, Nager says labor was an issue that is always hanging over the industry's head, but with the cherry season finishing early, additional labor became available within the company to help with the apple harvest.

Higher levels of mechanization inside its processing and packing facilities also meant labor could be moved from inside the plants to out on the fields.

"As long as there's work, they're more than happy to be there," Nager says.

"So we've had flexibility in moving some of that labor around. But it was very fortuitous that the crops just kind of lined up, where our cherry crews were able to just go right into the apple harvest and pear harvest without really missing a beat."

Domex has also been investing heavily in additional infrastructure such as controlled atmosphere (CA) storage rooms to cope with a harvest of this size. Rainier has gone along a similar route.

"At Rainier Fruit we've built new CA storage facilities and we have the space, so we've in a very good situation right now," Wolter says.

"I have heard that others haven't been able to get product in there, but I can't really comment on what their situation is."

Evans - whose company Chelan will produce some 12.5 million boxes of apples - says a combination of good movement in the market and efficient field operations mean it has not encountered problems with storage either.

"We had enough early season movement to turn bins around back out to the orchard and get the fruit harvested. It looks like we've got a pretty good handle on that to date," Evans says.

"We're just about wrapped up on harvest now, there's maybe 1% or 2% left."

Customers looking for 'a flavor experience'

The Washington State apple crop is made up of a plethora of varieties, but Rainier's spokesperson cites one in particular whose popularity has been soaring throughout the country.

"I think that the rockstar of the apple category right now has been Honeycrisp - it is exploding. My social media person said she believes there are probably some people in the U.S. that have serious Honeycrisp addiction," Wolter says.

She says growers thinking about planting the variety need to exercise caution, however, as it requires specific conditions and more labor.

"People have planted it everywhere because they see it as a big thing, but Honeycrisp likes higher elevation and it's very particular on the sites that it's grown. People wonder why it's expensive; well, it's expensive because it takes such a tremendous amount of labor," Wolter says.

"You have to clip every stem because the stems are thick, and they can easily punch the skin which can cause a hole which leads to decay. They also bruise much more easily than other varieties, so you have to be much more careful the ways it's harvested and the way you pack it."

Other varieties have also seen consumption slow down somewhat, as new ones gradually take their place.

"The ones the are declining - we're calling them our banishing varieties - would be Red Delicious and Golden Delicious, they have really suffered from the rise of Honeycrisp and also Gala for the last 10 years. Other varieties that are going out of flavor include Braeburn and Cameo," she says.

"Varieties that are now mainline that represent almost 50% of volumes in the U.S. are Gala, Fuji and Granny Smith, and then the other rising stars would include new ones like Jazz, Pink Lady, and then the club varieties, Junami and Lady Alice.

"I think the reason that retailers are so enamored with them is they command a higher retail price and the consumers are looking for that flavor experience, and these new varieties are giving them that."

China back in action

At the end of last month, the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) officially announced the reinstatement of Chinese market access for Red and Golden Delicious apples from Washington State.

Shipments of Washington apples to the Asian country stopped in August 2012 when the Chinese government refused to issue permits to the country's importers, citing concerns with a recently discovered fungus they claimed was not in China.

The Chinese opening will take some additional market pressure off the apple industry this 2014-15 season, and Chelan and Domex both say they are planning their first exports for later this month.

"It's good to have that market open for Reds and Goldens this year. We've not historically done a huge amount there, but we will continue to build on that market," Evans says.

"They'll probably begin mid to late November."

Nager said Domex's first shipments should leave in a couple of weeks, but he was not sure about volumes just yet as it was important to make sure their current customers were happy first.

"The industry continues to work with China and is trying to gain access for other varieties as well, so that would be a tremendous benefit to our industry because fruit is just going to continue to be available, and China will look to be a very good market for some of that fruit," he says.

"And other countries as well actually, like India - when you're looking at the world there, there are lots of opportunities.

"World politics has kind of worked its way into issues with selling our fruit, so hopefully we'll soon be able to sell our fruit in many other markets that we're not now."

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