Last summer, Rainier Fruit Co., located in Yakima, WA, undertook significant improvements at its Prosser, WA, facility, increasing operational efficiencies and allowing the company to deliver the best-possible product to its customers.

As consumers take their apple purchases to the next level, Stemilt Growers Inc. is giving them what they crave: quality product that includes new and diverse varietal offerings. “We are seeing a continuation of the consumer latching onto the varietal apples that have been planted, packed and shipped the past 15 years,” Director of Marketing Roger Pepperl told The Produce News Dec. 19. “The large variety of apples we have today has resulted in better pricing and true demand at retail.”

Peter Forrence, one of three cousins who own Forrence Orchards, which is located in Peru, NY, told The Produce News that apple demand is good this year, “but not excessive. My assessment is often about pricing, which is about where it was last year, but last year was high so I feel that it’s about where it should be.”

Since its inception in the 1950s, BelleHarvest Sales Inc., headquartered in Belding, MI, has earned its reputation as a supplier of top-quality conventional apples. Today, the company is one of the larger fresh market apple marketers in the eastern United States, moving apples into global pipelines.

Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me, the title of a 1966 novel by Richard Farina, probably expresses the feelings of many in the floral industry, battered by the worst recession in decades.

But things are looking up. A new poll shows 62 percent of the U.S. population expects a better year economically for the nation in 2012, and 78 percent expect it to be better for themselves and their families.

Consumer trends forecast by a “retail prophet,” 6,500 attendees swarming 800 booths in a 200,000-square-foot exhibit hall, and short courses and demonstrations on topics ranging from “biomimicry” and “natural enemies” to more conventional team-building and customer service, with “Fairy Garden Essentials” thrown in for good measure. Not to mention a tour of nurseries.