October 2019 - 1

Researcher's quest for a
red-juiced apple pays
off
10
High-Tech Tools
2019
14
Investment, need
drive in-soil strawberry
harvester
We introduce our Fruit
+ Vegetable 40 Under
40 award winners
1A
October 2019 | Volume 58 |
Issue 10
U.S. APPLE PRODUCTION (MILLION BUSHELS)
270.9 271.6
APPLE CROP FORECAST
FOLLOWS
RECENT PATH
Washington state leads the way
By Gary Pullano
Managing Editor
The U.S. Apple Association estimate of
the size of the 2019 U.S. crop came in at
247.7 million bushels.
The estimate was given during
USApple's annual Crop Outlook and
Marketing Conference held Aug. 22-23 in
Chicago.
The 2019 estimate represents a 1%
increase from 2018's final crop of 244.2
million bushels, and is 1% below the fiveyear
average.
Here's a regional breakdown:
* In the Eastern states, the 2019
estimate is 47.5 million bushels,
down 4% from 49.6 bushels in 2018
and 2% below the five-year average.
* New York will produce 31.5 million
bushels, down 5% from last year
and equaling the five-year average.
Pennsylvania will produce 11.5
million bushels, down 1% from
2018 and down 5% from the fiveyear
average. Virginia will produce
4.5 million bushels, down 6% from
2018 and down 5% from the fiveyear
average.
* The Midwest estimate (based
239.0
256.1
247.7
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Source: U.S. Apple Association
only on Michigan) is 25.2 million
bushels, up 1% from 2018's total of
25 million bushels and 1% above
the five-year average.
* In the Western states, the 2019
estimate is 174.9 million bushels,
a 3% increase from 2018 and 1%
below the five-year average.
Washington, which once again leads the
nation in the 2019 forecast, will produce
165 million bushels, up 3% from 2018
but down 1% from the five-year average.
California will produce 6.5 million bushels,
up 9% from last year and up 14% from the
five-year average. Oregon will produce 3.4
million bushels, down 15% from 2018 and
down 13% from the five-year average.
International estimates
According to the outlook reports,
Mexico will produce 27 million boxes
of apples in 2019. Its largest production
state, Chihuahua, will supply 23 million
See OUTLOOK, page 5
Driscoll's growth starts with plant
By Gary Pullano
Managing Editor
Augustine Renteria has been with
Driscoll's for 31 years. Please excuse
him if he treats the strawberry
plants he is nurturing at the mega
berry company's California breeding
grounds as children. To him, that's
exactly what they are.
" The varieties are similar to
humans, " said the farm manager
of The Company Ranch in
Aromas, California, near Driscoll's
headquarters. " With the plants - when
you put them in the ground in late
October and November - and then
winter comes, the plant looks like a
baby when it's a newborn. The plant
will not talk. Winter comes, and then
we don't see the plants moving. I see
the plants every aday in the winter.
When the winter is almost over, in
March, normally, the weather changes.
Then, from one week to another, you
can see the response of the plant.
Then the plant is starting to take off.
A newborn child can't talk. Maybe
he has a stomach ache, but we can't
always know that because he can't talk
until after a year or so. It's the same
thing with the strawberry plants. "
Renteria was one of the hosts for a
group of retailers and buyers visiting
Driscoll's as a prelude to the Organic
Produce Summit held out of Monterey,
California, in early July.
Strawberries are California's
fourth-highest-grossing crop, and
88% of the strawberries in the United
States are grown there. Renteria is
part of Driscoll's effort to remain the
market leader.
Driscoll's 20-acre breeding facility
features 10 acres of plantings - half
of which are non-fumigated - where
See DRISCOLL'S, page 6
October 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of October 2019
