Washington's apple harvest is again underway — including orchards throughout the Yakima Valley — and will continue into next month.
Washington is expected to harvest 130.9 million 40-pound boxes of fresh packed apples. That’s well below the 2014 record of 141.9 million boxes, but if the estimate holds, it will still be the third-largest crop ever.
Apples are by far the state’s highest-valued agricultural commodity. The value of apples hit a record $2.4 billion in 2015, the latest year figures were available from the Washington State Department of Agriculture. That’s about 22 percent of the $10.7 billion value for all of the state’s agricultural products.
So far, about 5.5 percent of this year’s crop has been shipped. Applied to the 130.9 million-box estimate, that equals about 7.2 million boxes. Many apples harvested now will be packed and put into cold storage rooms until they are shipped.
Source: yakimaherald.com
