WENATCHEE — The Washington Apple Commission rallied its international marketing forces this week to better sell 2014’s record-shattering apple crop in countries around the world.
A dozen fruit brokers representing the apple industry’s top 25 foreign export markets gathered here Tuesday to end six days of orchard tours and fruit-packing demos — all in preparation to sell 25 percent more apples to Mexico, Canada and nations overseas.
“These folks are the face of Washington apples in foreign markets,” said Apple Commission President Todd Fryhover. “They’re the experts on selling our apples in their own countries, and we want them as up-to-date as possible on our new varieties and growing methods.”
The apple reps traveled here from Mexico, India, China, the United Kingdom, Europe, Russia, Indonesia, the Middle East and a handful of other countries and regions. This was the trade reps first such gathering here since 2008. State fruit companies sell apples to more than 60 countries around the globe.
Since Thursday, the apple reps have been on the road in Yakima and the Wenatchee Valley to see orchard practices that have produced more apples on fewer acres and the technologies to pack and ship them. The techniques are expected to push this year’s harvest beyond a record-breaking 140 million boxes.
That 140 million total — some insiders say the crop could reach 150 million boxes — would be 12 million more than 2012’s record-breaker of 128 million. Shippers export about 30 percent of each harvest annually and are aiming this year to sell millions more boxes in foreign markets.
Fryhover said a “very optimistic” estimate of 2014 exports could approach 60 million boxes. “But a more realistic number is 50 million.”
Trends over the past decade show that growth in export sales is highly possible, said Fryhover. Since 2004, the Gala variety exports have grown by 115 percent, Fuji by 116 percent, Granny Smith by 152 percent and other varieties — Honeycrisp, Golden Delicious — by 171 percent.
“We have so many different varieties, so many tastes and textures,” said Fryhover.
Fresh from nearly a week of tours and demos, the apple reps praised the state’s growers, packers and shippers for innovations that have begun to reshape the industry.
Said George Smith, rep for the United Kingdom and European Union: “We saw packing houses and technology here that rival Boeing in size and science.”
