U.S. apple holdings up 14 percent from last year

U.S. fresh-market apple holdings of 104.0 million bushels on January 1, 2020, are 14 percent greater than the January 1, 2019 holdings of 91.0 million bushels, and 3 percent greater than the five-year average of 100.7 million bushels, according to the U.S. Apple Association’s BB #:145473 first Market News report of the year.

USApple reports that processing holdings totaled 40.1 million bushels, 18 percent greater than last year on January 1. The total number of apples in storage on January 1, 2020, was 144.1 million bushels, 15 percent greater than last January’s total of 125.0 million bushels and 3 percent above the 5-year average for that date.

The 2017 crop had 108.3 million bushels on January 1, 2018, with 41.0 million bushels of processing holdings.

By variety, Red Delicious remains the largest variety of fresh holdings at 22.3 million bushels, followed closely by Gala at 22.2 million. Fuji (12.7 million), Granny Smith (12.6 million) and Honeycrisp (10.3 million) round out the top five varieties.