Peter Forrence, vice president of Forrence Orchards in Peru, NY, told The Produce News on Aug. 6, that there were no foreseeable glitches in the company’s current crop of apples.

“We were among the more fortunate in New York last year in that we didn’t suffer crop damage,” Forrence said.

“Overall, the state was down by about 50 percent. Our crop this year may be just slightly smaller than last year’s, but everything is in place for a good harvest, storage and enough high-quality apples to get us through to next summer.”

Noting that other growers in New York, as well as in other apple-producing states in the country are also reporting good to better-than-average crops this season, Forrence said there will be plenty of apples on the market.

“That could affect pricing somewhat because of supply and demand, but it also means that we have a great opportunity to nurture consumption more this year,” he said. “Stronger promotions on new varieties and other always popular varieties will hopefully get consumers to look more to our product.

“The health, nutritional and obesity issues out there in the media, balanced with the benefits of apple consumption on all of these issues, puts us in a great marketing advantage,” he added.

In early August, Forrence Orchards was preparing to pick and pack its Jersey Mac variety, which Forrence said were “looking beautiful.” That will be followed by the Paula Red harvest, which leads into the McIntosh movement in the early part of September.

“From there we are full speed ahead with McIntosh and Honeycrisps, which are followed by some Cortlands,” said Forrence. “Demand on varieties changes slowly but continually over the years. About 25 years ago we were all about McIntosh, Cortland and Empire, and the majority of Empire apples were exported to the U.K. That has pretty much fallen by the wayside.”

“The demand for McIntosh apples continues to be strong, in part at least because less growers are producing them,” he continued. “But people still want them on the truck of apples coming to them.”

The Honeycrisp variety, however, is a totally different deal today. Forrence said there is still not sufficient production to satiate the demand for the variety, which is a shining star in apple varieties today. This also attributes to the high price of the apple, which is about twice as expensive as the McIntosh.

“Growing the Honeycrisp is another challenge that growers in some areas experience,” explained Forrence.

“It’s a hard apple to grow in areas south of us,” he continued. “It was established in Minnesota in the regions’ typically very cold winters. The apple wants to grow in northern climates, and so they don’t grow particularly well south of us. It’s also a very labor intensive apple to produce. It has to be sprayed, spot picked and given a lot of love and tender care — more so than other varieties.”

The labor required to produce good-quality Honeycrisp apples also contributes to the high prices it demands.

The good volume and high quality 2013 apple crop should keep Forrence Orchards in good supply through next May or June.

The company continues to explore and develop more advanced ways of picking apples with less bruising and it continually replaces older trees with newer variety trees that are in high demand.

“Internally we’re always focusing on food safety, packaging and outstanding service,” said Forrence.