The weather has been cooperating up until now for this season's US apples, but any drastic drop in temperature after warmer than usual weather, like the drop predicted last weekend in the eastern half of the US, is always a concern.
"We have high moisture in orchards which could be problematic with the extreme cold temperatures that are on the way. Shallow rooted trees could see freeze damage. The lack of snow coverage to act as insulation is also a concern. The ground is usually frozen this time of year which helps harden off the roots, which protects the tress from injury. This is not the case today and the -10 to -15 degrees predicted in some areas could be a problem." warned James Allen, President of the New York Apple Association, last Friday.
New varieties are gaining ground in the US, while yellow and green apples such as Granny Smith and Golden Delicious are losing their popularity. However, Allen says that it will be a while before the more established top 3 apple varieties, such as Red Delicious, Gala, and Fuji (in that order) are knocked down from their top positions.
The popularity of the different varieties also differs per region. For example, on the East Coast, consumers tend to prefer a slightly more tart apple than their fellow countrymen on the West Coast. This might also be due to the fact that the varieties historically grown in the region tend to be a bit more tart, due to a different acid to sugar ratio, which has helped formed the preferences in that region. McIntosh, Honeycrisp, Gala, Fuji and Empire top the list of favorites in the East.
Although preference between sweet and tart tends to vary across the continental US, the one thing that all American consumers agree on is that it is all about crispness! If the variety doesn't have a good ‘bite’ then they are not interested.
This is one of the reasons why Allen doesn't think that the recent proposal to allow EU apples into the US will have much of an impact on the industry. He said that apples in the EU are much too soft and don’t tend to visually be what the American consumer is used to. He could see the apples having success in foreign supermarkets in the US, such as Italian brand apples being sold in an area with a lot of Italian immigrants, but doesn't think that it will make a dent on the regular marketplace. However, Allen did express concern that the biggest impact could be depressing the domestic market, because of the quality.
The United States is the world´s second largest producer of apples, behind the People´s Republic of China, and Allen said that China remains a major growing market for the export of US apples. The market there remains a premium one and when asked about the recent reports of premium fruit brands being forged in the Chinese marketplace, he said that unfortunately, there is nothing that can be done on the American side to prevent that and that it will need to be something that China resolves internally.
