Kris Marceca is the Executive Director for the US Apple Export Council (USAEC), an organization which represents the top apple-producing states other than Washington, and she notes that although the volume of exports from the states she represents are not extremely large, they are strategic.
“We try to create opportunities that are realistic for our product and what we represent,” she says.
She adds that, given the nature of apple consumption in the US, large volumes of exports are not the norm.
“There are only a few large national supermarket chains in the United States,” she says, “so apple consumption is still very much regional. Additionally, the vast majority of people in the US are buying apples from the people we represent, so unless there's a good market for export, we're really not going to export.”
That, combined with a domestic market with very good movement this year, has meant that USAEC has not moved into many new markets. But Marceca says that doesn't mean they don't have an eye to new markets which might work in the future.
“We're shipping for the first time to Germany and Vietnam,” she says, “and it's not a lot of volume, but that's not what we do. We look for opportunities where we believe we can bring something new to the market.”
“It's not a matter of flooding a market with cheap apples,” says Tommy Leighton of USAEC, “it's a completely different way of doing things.”
Their approach involves looking for situations where the introduction of new varieties might work in a market alongside existing product. In the UK, for example, New York growers ship the Empire apple – a variety which is also grown in the UK.
“There's only a tiny bit of Empire grown in the UK,” she says, “but even then, we're careful not to promote it when the European fruit is in season, and we give European producers a lot of credit for putting out a good product.”
She believes this 'rising tide lifts all boats' attitude is what ultimately makes the global trade work.
“In the end,” she says, “the real drive is to move all apples grown in the US, and ultimately, the world, to the best return, and to provide customers with the best product. It's not about displacing local production, because what good does that do? That's just like rearranging chairs.”
For more information, please visit: www.usaapples.com