Posts Tagged “Washington state”
When everything we seem to buy anymore is going up in price, two items that should be bucking the trend are pears and kiwifruit. Both are now in abundance.
Wholesale pear prices have actually dropped a little from last season coming of Washington state. The question is whether you’ll see any lower prices at retail. Retailers love to pay less for product, yet pocket the savings for themselves. Much of it depends on how much competition the retailer is facing. I’ve tried 3 varieties of pears so far this season. The Bartlett pears were tasty and juicy; yum, yum. However, the Bosc variety and Red pear was not nearly as good.
I recently wrote about kiwifruit from New Zealand and Italy with NZ winning the taste competition. Now kiwi from California is in abundance and it’s really good in quality and taste. While retail prices on many produce items are climbing, kiwi continues to be one of the best buys in the produce department.
When it comes to getting produce loads out of the Northwest this time of the 
year, we’re looking primarily looking at apples, pears, potatoes and onions. The fruit is primarily in Washington state, while the potatoes and onions are not only in Washington, but in Idaho and Oregon. When talking truck load equivalents, keep in mind this includes loads by rail, which are heavier from this region than most. In the Yakima and Wantchee valleys about 4,300 truck load equivalents of apples and pears are being shipped weekly. In Washington’s Columbia Basin and the Umatilla Basin in Oregon, both spuds and onions are being loaded. Potato movement from the Twin-Falls-Burley area of Idaho is around 2,000 truck load equivalents per week.
Idaho potatoes – grossing about $5700 to New York City.
Washington fruit – about $4100 to Chicago.
Washington potatoes – about $2300 to L.A.
Washington State apple shipments should be huge this season which continues through summer from storages when the new crop starts coming on in late
July or August. Over 104 million boxes are expected to shipped during the 2011-2012 season, primarily from the Yakima and Wantechee valleys. During the last week of December alone, 3.2 million 42-pound boxes of apples were shipped. Typically when you have a large fruit crop, it results in smaller sizing, but quality is reported as quite good. Shipments have been really heavy since the crop from the previous season had all been moved, leaving a gap between it and the new season. Thus, demand for apples has been strong.
Washington apples – grossing about $6400 to New York City.
Washington (Columbia Basin) potatoes and onions – about $4400 to Detroit
With a huge Washington state apple crop in full swing now, choices are good for 
different varieties of apples in you supermarket. Soaring popularity is the Honeycrisp variety. The Pink Lady also is becoming more popular, while in recent years the Fuji and Gala varieties have become favorites. Washington state hand picks 10 to 12 billion, that’s billion with a “B” apples a year. No machine harvesting is done. The state provides as many apples each season as all the other states combined. Washington also has older varieties such as the Red Delicious and Golden Delicious, Braeburn, Jonagold and Cameo. Many supermarkets will carry recipes and suggestions for what varieties are best for certain uses, or you can look this info up on line.