A needed season for Riveridge
A needed season for Riveridge
“Prices are at levels where we all are able to make a living,” Don Armock said of the Michigan apple deal on Dec. 18. “We need years like this because you’ve got to offset the years, like last year, when you give back some.”
A variety of factors made this a great shipping year for Riveridge Produce Marketing, Inc., which is owned by Armock.
The 2015 crop, which enjoyed ideal weather, especially in the harvest season, brought a “varietal mix that was more conducive to what consumers buy today,” he said. While the 2015 crop was similar in overall size to 2014, the highly demanded Gala and Fuji this year produced in record volumes for Riveridge.
“The distribution of our fruit sizes fits very well” with market demands. “It has played out very well.”
A piece of bad news for Riveridge this year is the Honeycrisp pack-out has been “somewhat poor. That’s the nature of the variety” to be inconsistent from one year to the next, Armock said.
“The season has gone well so far and the apple markets look good for the winter and summer,” he added.
“Prices are never high enough,” Armock said with a chuckle. “But they are sustainable. We would have died for these prices last year.” But the volumes are much better distributed now and demand is strong.
Riveridge began shipping its 2015 controlled atmosphere storage crop in mid-November. “The crop has stored very well,” he added.
With perfect harvest weather, harvest dates could be chosen for the ideal brix and acidity levels, which of course boosted the storage crop quality and bodes well for shipping apples for the best eating experience into the summer of 2016.
