![]() ![]() “The chart shows the influence of China – endlessly low prices,” he said. growers, he said, the years before China crushed the market weren’t all rosy. While the rising price of juice apples is good news for U.S. Apple Association, remembers the years of the big crunch on apple juice prices. Growers often don’t know how poorly or well they’ve done until the co-op settles things up at the end of the season. ![]() Since juice apples – in fact, all non-fresh-market apples in Washington – find a residual value in processed products, Tree Top officials don’t talk price much until the annual report comes out the next year. But hail storms, stem punctures, russeting, sunburn, bruising and poor markets for some varieties make the processing and juice market an important one, even for those who grow apples aimed only at the highest fresh-market value. Tom Hurson and Lindsay Buckner from Tree Top in Washington said strong fresh-market apple prices were pulling apples up, putting on more pressure to keep apples out of the bottom price category of juice apples. The last decade of low prices encouraged a radical restructuring of the industry, as growers pulled trees and planted fresh-market varieties. John Rice, a board member of Pennsylvania-based cooperative Knouse Foods, said that $9 to $10 juice apples would certainly do a lot for Eastern apple growers, who have historically grown apples for the processing market. apple processors like Tree Top and Knouse Foods were playing their cards close to the vest, talking in general terms. China, which doesn’t have official statistics, was expected to have a smaller crop than usual and would produce 15 percent to 20 percent less concentrate. Eastern Europe was suffering a drought after a miserable spring, and the crop in Poland – the world’s largest apple juice concentrate producer – was down 50 percent, and production of concentrate could be down 75 percent. Everyone was interested in the condition of the world apple crop. Apple Association’s annual summer conference in Chicago, the rising price of apple juice concentrate was on the agenda. The company will continue operating at its Wenatchee and Prosser plants, with the juice processing consolidated at the Prosser plant.Īt the U.S. The Cashmere facility could reopen following the 2008 harvest, depending on the quality of the crop. The grower-owned cooperative said the high-quality crop for the 2007 season resulted in fewer lower-grade apples for the juice processing operation. Selah, Wash.-based Tree Top announced it would temporarily shut down its Cashmere, Wash., apple and pear juice plant because there wasn’t enough fruit to keep it running, according to the company. apple crop went for juice, according to USDA. 2004 saw a big tumble in prices, to $70.50 a ton from $103 in 2003. The average juice apple price hit a rock bottom $67.90 per ton in 2005 ($3.39 a cwt.), and rose 42 percent to $96.40 per ton ($4.82 a cwt.) in 2006. ![]() He said the additional dollar this fall means the minimum price for juice apples has risen 47 percent in two years the $8 figure represents an increase of 88 percent, a near doubling. The MACMA processing apple division negotiated a minimum price of $4.25 in 2005 and boosted that by a dollar, to $5.25, in 2006. Everybody else was paying more, with prices as high as $8 a cwt. for tree-run juice apples this fall, but that only one paid that price. Phil Pitts, who runs the sales desk at the processing apple division of MACMA, said Michigan’s processors had agreed to pay Michigan growers a minimum price of $6.25 a cwt. Apple juice concentrate, which cost as little as $4 a gallon for the Chinese version a few years ago and $6 this spring, was running about $11 in October, while European concentrate was around $15. After nearly a decade of low and flat prices for juice apples, prices were sharply higher this fall, rising for the second year in a row. ![]()
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