Washington’s 2024 Apple Crop Expected To Be “Normal”

The preliminary forecast for the 2024 Washington state fresh apple crop shows a return to historical norms after back-to-back unique years.  According to the members of the Washington State Tree Fruit Association, this year’s crop is expected to net an estimated 124 million standard 40-pound boxes.  WSTFA President Jon DeVaney, noted cool wet weather in 2022 resulted in a smaller than normal crop of 103.9 million, and the 2023 crop rebounded with 136.1 million boxes.

"[An average sized crop] should help with the pricing that growers receive a little bit as well to have a little bit of a decrease in supply often we'll have a positive effect on pricing from the from the producer's perspective," Devaney noted.  "But a normal crop should still be an amount of supply in the market that will mean good supply and no extreme price fluctuations for consumers.” 

DeVaney added organic continues to make up more and more of the harvest across Washington.  Organic apples make up about 16% of this year’s crop, up from 11% about five years ago.

“A lot of folks do not realize that well over 94% of the organic apples in the United States are produced in Washington state.  So we definitely produce the majority of the nation 's apples, around 2/3 of the nations apples, but more than that we produce over 90% of the organic fruit.  We really are the leaders in that sector.” 

The top varieties produced this season include: 

• Gala at 19%
• Granny Smith  at 14.5% 
• Red Delicious at 13% 
• Honeycrisp at 12% 
• Fuji at 10.5% 

Cosmic Crisp, developed at Washington State University, will make up 9% of this year’s crop. Cripps pink will be about 7% of the crop, Envy and golden delicious around 3.5% each and Ambrosia at 2%.  Apples represent about 16%, or about $2 billion, of the state’s total farm-gate agricultural value in 2022 and exports about 30% of its apples.

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