Energy and excitement are running high in Washington apple orchards this season. Producers such as Oneonta Starr Ranch Growers in Wenatchee, WA, expect careful long-range planning to pay significant dividends — fruit of exceptional volume, quality and size — in the coming years.

“The 2014 crop is up quite a bit over last year,” National Marketing Representative Dan Wohlford told The Produce News. “We’re looking at around 15.5 million boxes of apples with 1.2 million of that being organic. The region was blessed with near-perfect growing conditions this past spring and summer. And that weather is giving us a tremendous amount of fruit, not only in volume but sizing has been pretty good, too. We seem to have plenty of all sizes retailers are looking for.”

Earlier this year, Oneonta Starr Ranch Growers installed a new 10-lane, 300-foot-long Greefa sizer at its Columbia Reach facility. (Photo courtesy of Oneonta Starr Ranch Growers)The company was one of Washington’s first exporters of apples. In addition to apples, Oneonta grows and markets pears, cherries, stone fruit, table grapes, citrus and other commodities.

Washington’s apple producers expect 2014 to be a record-breaking crop, indicative of good things to come. As a result, Wohlford said strategic long-range planning is important to ensure increases in volume are handled efficiently.

“We think that this year is just the first in a string of record-breaking crops,” he stated. “And we have to stay ahead of that volume staring us down by keeping our facilities as up-to-date and efficient as possible.”

A new packingline was installed earlier this year at Oneonta’s Columbia Reach facility in Yakima, WA. Wohlford said a new 10-lane, 300-foot-long Greefa sizer is located in a new 98,000-square-foot building. “The new line provides defect sorting on all 10 lanes,” he commented. “Internal defect sorting is included. We have robotic palletization for stacking boxes and have 17 accumulating lanes to feed the robot, and room to add 34 more lanes. Also, we have room to add a second 10-lane sizer next to the current one. Poly baggers are automated Sims Manufacturing machinery. Mesh baggers are automated Giro baggers. And we also have plans to increase capacity to 121 rooms with storage for 185,000 bins.”

Another new packingline was installed at the Gilbert Orchards facility. “The expanded, state-of-the-art warehouse and cold storage facility now packs and stores about 1.5 million boxes of fruit, both conventional and organic, year-round,” he went on to say. “The new packing facility contains two packinglines, the large one doing about 400 bins of apples a day. The smaller line handles about 150 bins a day of peaches and nectarines and all the organic products.”

At the current time, Oneonta is shipping Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, Granny Smith, Gala, Fuji, Honeycrisp, Braeburn and Jonagold apples. Wohlford said Pink Lady production will ramp up soon.

“We export 30 to 35 percent of our apple crop currently, and that number fluctuates from year to year given political issues out of our control,” Wohlford noted. “However, we are always looking to expand our export business just like we are always looking to expand domestically.”

Asian markets continue to be strong destinations for apples, and Wohlford said the reopening of the Chinese market is a positive step for the future. “The Middle East and India also are areas of growth,” he went on to say.

Oneonta launched its Apples-To-Go and Pears-To-Go campaign with dedicated point-of-sale information in October.

“Retailers are excited about the opportunities that the material gives them to communicate to consumers that apples and pears are great healthy snacks that can go along with their busy lifestyles,” he said.