Washington State, a bellwether of the national apple crop, is reporting a significant drop in both the size of the 2022 crop and sizing of its most popular varieties. Growers attribute the outcome to weather events that impacted pollination in the spring. And snow put a hard stop to harvest at end of October.

As of November 1, 2022, Washington’s holdings were 110.3 million 42-lb bushels down from 125 million a year ago.

Some growers are reporting that sizing of popular varieties such as Gala, Pink Lady and Granny Smith is also down, with 125 count versus 100-count size apples. That means 125 apples fit in a box rather than 100.

“USApple will be taking a look at the December storage volumes to work backwards into an implied production estimate, but those data are not yet available,” says Christopher Gerlach, director, industry analytics, USApple.

Source:  US Apple November 28, 2022