|
           
|
|
|
|
The Fruit Growers News website offers a sampling of articles and features from each month. Subscribe to get all the news offered in The Fruit Growers News delivered right to you home!
Permission is granted for reprinting material, except for commercial or advertising purposes, provided The Fruit Growers News is given full credit.
|
|
|
|
- Apples Are Not A Commodity
- How will the collapse of the Washington Apple Commission (WAC) affect growers?
Differentially!
I am a small tree fruit grower with 10 acres in Pennsylvania. I retail everything I grow. I have three acres of apples of very non-traditional cultivars. The demise of WAC will not affect me, and may even benefit me.
I would like to see all non-voluntary assessments dismantled because they seem very un-American to me. I would also like to see most government programs dismantled but that is another issue. The WAC, along with other government sponsored programs, were responsible for the commodification of apples in this country - much to our commercial growers’ current chagrin. Consumers came to expect apples that were purple, green or light green...that looked beautiful but didn’t taste like much in season - and were downright unappealing in late winter. It is no wonder that I constantly hear from my customers a stream of invectives directed at Red Delicious and Washington apples in general. In my opinion, that is the legacy of WAC, and the industry will be better off without it.
In the beginning of the economic disaster that is happening to our tree fruit industries, across the nation the cry was heard, “It is the fault of retail consolidation.” I do not agree. I believe that the fundamental major fault with profitability was commodification of apples and other fruits and WAC accelerated that trend.
Red Delicious has been a disaster waiting to happen. The Washington industry is now experiencing that disaster. 20 years ago (when I was 17) I knew, and many honest growers knew, that Red Delicious would fail as a cultivar, because they knew they were growing and delivering fruit with very poor eating quality. That turned consumers off to apples - which is a loss that will be difficult to regain. Growers continue to plant Red Delicious, and some in the East will even comment on how profitable it is. They are responsible for driving the industry into the ground.
Did WAC benefit Washington growers? Perhaps WAC benefited the industry in the early years of its existence, but once it reached the point of promoting apples as a commodity, it out-lived its useful life. Apples are not a commodity. Like great wine, they can reflect the location they are grown in and the care of the grower in growing them. If an apple producer’s goal is cosmetic perfection without regard to eating quality, I wish them on their way to the final auction.
I could go on...
Ike Kerschner
North Star Orchard
Coatesville, Pa.
-
|
|
