Apple shipments, an amazing amount: 61 million bushels fresh-market apples had yet to ship as of April 1, an astounding 27 percent more than last year at the same time.
The April total also was 37 percent higher than the five-year average. As usual, Washington accounted for about 55 million bushels of the fresh-market apples still in storage. New York had 2.4 million bushels, Michigan 2 million bushels and Pennsylvania 694,000 bushels.
The big numbers apply to all major apple varieties. About 23.4 million bushels of red delicious had yet to ship, up from 17.5 million bushels.
Galas still to be shipped increased from 6.7 million to 9.7 million bushels, granny smith from 7 million to 7.2 million bushels, golden delicious from 5.4 million to 6.6 million bushels, fuji from 4.6 million to 5.7 million bushels, Pink Lady from 1.4 million to 1.9 million bushels and Honeycrisp from 329,000 to 670,000 bushels.
Michigan apples – grossing about $900 to Chicago.
Hudson Valley, NY apples – grossing about $1600 to Baltimore.
Yakima Valley, WA apples – grossing about $6700 to New York City.
Apricot Shipments
In an average year California ships about 1.5 million 24-pound packages of apricots. Harvest should get underway in the southern San Joaquin Valley in late April and moves up the state’s Central Valley throughout the spring and early summer.
California apricot shipments, which tend to mirror California cherry shipments, should be finished by the end of June.
Around 400 growers produce apricots from orchards covering 21,000 acres in the San Joaquin Valley and Northern California. About 95 percent of the apricots grown in the United States come from California.