Virginia’s commercial orchards yielded about 4.6 million bushels of apples in 2014, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Fresh market apples totaled 80 million pounds, while apples grown for processing accounted for 115 million pounds.
“While we are down from a 5.7 million-bushel crop in 2012, overall the last two years have been good for growers from a production standpoint,” said Spencer Neale, vice president of commodity marketing for Virginia Farm Bureau Federation.
The decline in production from 2012 can be attributed to fewer bearing acres of apples. Acreage dropped from 11,000 to 10,400 over the past three years.
Neale said growers with whom he has talked “feel good about the 2015 crop, although the final outcome won’t be known until the harvest is done.”
Virginia is ranked sixth nationally for apple production. With a utilized production value of $36.7 million in 2014, apples continue to be an important crop in the commonwealth.
Additionally, Virginia’s grape production for 2014 was estimated at 17.6 million pounds. Virginia’s peach harvest for 2014 yielded 10.6 million pounds, and the state ranked 13th nationwide for peach production.
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AFP
