Mixed blessings may arrive in odd packaging.

When a series of devastating freezes struck Michigan’s early blooming apple crop in April 2012, the state’s tiny potential apples turned black and died.

Damage done, the good part of this story began its flow.

The Michigan apple industry has been on a positive roll for years. The Great Lakes State is located just a day-long truck delivery from many major Eastern markets.

Mitch Brinks and Pat Chase, executives at Jack Brown Produce, based in Sparta, MI, stand in a new Honeycrisp high-density apple orchard in July 2013. The sweet and popular Honeycrisp variety is quickly increasing in production in Michigan. Customers in Atlanta, Texas and major markets between, also enjoy Michigan’s shorter routes — thus reduced freight rates — vs. buying from the West. Michigan apple producers are surrounded by major metropolitan areas eager to by fresh “local” apples.

Importantly, the Michigan apple industry had the foresight to move from traditional processing staples to new, tasteful varieties designed for modern tastes.

Michigan’s apples may have died in April 2012, but the trees survived. And the energy that would have been spent on producing a 2012 crop was retained in the tree. As a result, the 2013 crop was a record for this era focused on fresh production.  

The state’s apple growers, packers and shippers planned coming increases in fresh production. So, when the 2012 crop was lost, they used their “year off” from normal harvesting, storing, packing and shipping, to prepare for Michigan’s future.  

Despite large doses of lost 2012 income, Michigan’s packers, including Jack Brown Produce, Inc., based in Sparta, MI, invested in the future by expanding and updating packing and storage facilities and buying new apple storage bins. “Michigan and Jack Brown are in the volume increase mode for the next three or four years and we need to be prepared to handle it,” said John Schaefer, Jr., president of Jack Brown.

He expected Michigan, which produced 30 million bushels of apples in 2013, to see a total increased production as high as 20 percent within the next five years. “Not only will there be more volume but there is a production shift from heavy processing fruit to more fresh marketing. The fresh market apple volume in Michigan will be up by more than 20 percent. We are very, very pleased with the upgrades that have been made.”

Schaefer said the Honeycrisp variety “had a significant jump in volume this year.” Jack Brown finished shipping its 2013 Honeycrisp crop in early December. “We had projected shipping another month” but demand from “excellent consumer acceptance” absorbed all of the crop. “That’s a nice problem from the sales position — draw-through from the marketplace vs. pushing a little,” he said. Schaefer indicated that 100,000 Honeycrisp trees have been planted in the last three or four years. Jack Brown’s Honeycrisp volume this season was up 40 percent from the 2011 crop.

“It’s nice to be back in the apple business, even though our staff has put in hellacious hours this fall. Props to our staff. We’re all happy to be back,” Schaefer said.

He noted that the high volume of apple movement in the 2013 crop “was initiated as a result of the time we took to prepare. It really worked out well.”

Dominant in the efforts of Jack Brown as a large new primary packing line that was geared to improve the appearance of the firm’s fresh apples. A modern grading line improved productivity and new poly bagging machines at the end of the line became models of efficiency instead of the packer’s bottleneck. The firm went from 12 to 48 bagging machines.

“We were well-prepared for this year’s crop,” Schaefer said. “We were aware that over the past several years our growers have increased their capacity for fresh market apples.” Jack Brown needed to be “in line to handle a larger and larger volume of fruit.”