Although U.S. production won’t approach record volume, American apple suppliers have plenty to sell in 2018.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture projected a national apple volume of 248.7 million bushels. That’s well short of a record harvest of 281.3 million bushels in 2014. Despite that, U.S. apple farmers are getting more efficient every year. With the 248.7 million bushels this year, the five-year average harvest number is 257 million bushels, two million higher than the previous five-year average of 255 million.
Washington was the top apple-producing state in 2017, with an estimate of 142.3 million bushels headed to the market. New York was second at 28 million bushels, with Michigan third at 20.3 million.
Cynthia Haskins, president of the New York Apple Association, says, “Overall, the crop ended up really good. We did have a few pockets of hail we were concerned about but the crop sized up beautifully.”
From the National Association of Farm Broadcasting News Service.