Produce professionals never take a year for granted when everything falls into perfect place. This season, New York State growers are celebrating a great overall year, and they are thankful for it.

“In general, the condition of our fruit is great,” said Jim Allen, president of the New York Apple Association, based in Fishers, NY. “At this point in the crop-marketing year the majority of the apples are in controlled-atmosphere storage to maintain just-picked fruit quality. We still have good supplies of plenty of consumer-favorite varieties, including — in alphabetical order —Empire, Fuji, Gala, Golden and McIntosh varieties.”

Allen added that the fruit has been moving out of storage to market in an orderly fashion and prices have been good.

New York Apple Association’s new apple tote bags being displayed.He also pointed out that this year’s crop is smaller than last year, when the state had a near-record national harvest. But it was compounded by some market disruptions such as the West Coast port shut-down that interrupted apple exports.

“This year’s national and state crop size have both been closer to normal, so marketing has been more orderly and manageable,” explained Allen. “Every segment of the apple supply chain should be happy so far this season.”

Retail and consumer demand for local foods continues to grow, which is a boon for the apple industry. Allen pointed out that the state has the geographic good fortune of being proximally located to the Northeast’s largest population centers, starting with the biggest, New York City.

Exports are also an important market for New York State apples.

“We export as much as 10 percent of our production in any given year,” noted Allen. “Perhaps more importantly, New York’s key domestic markets rely on strong national exports. In fact, the U.S. exports about 25 percent of the national crop each year.

“New York state’s top three export markets currently are the United Kingdom, Israel and Canada,” he continued. “Looking to the future, Israel is a rising star. United Kingdom exports will decline because of an unreasonable change in pesticide policies.”

The NYAA is a member of the United States Export Council, an export market promotion program. Other state members include Michigan, California, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Allen stressed that the NYAA is also excited by the recent opening on the China market to U.S. apples, noting, “While we won’t necessarily export many apples from New York to China, any U.S. apple exports that are shipped there will help our domestic market.”

Allen also explained that variety innovation is the biggest news story in the apple industry today.

“Everyone — consumers, growers and retailers — are winning from the industry’s renewed focus on the flavor experience,” he said. “New York state is uniquely positioned to likely benefit more than any other state from new variety innovation. Our growers produce some of the best Honeycrisp in the country because the variety likes our climate. We have one of the country’s best apple breeding programs here at Cornell University. It is exciting to see the consumer and retail reception that the new ‘SnapDragon’ and ‘RubyFrost’ varieties are getting. They were bred here, and can only be grown in New York state.”

But state growers are still bullish on some of New York’s old favorites, such as the McIntosh, Empire and Cortland varieties.

NYAA has the good fortune of have a long-term reliable and professional team in place to help it promote the state’s apples. Susan McAleavey Sarlund has seamlessly transitioned into her father, John McAleavey’s footsteps as metro account manager following his death last year.

“This allows us to energize our activities on our industry’s behalf,” said Allen. “Our retail marketing and consumer advertising programs, for example, are cutting edge. This season we are conducting a multifaceted promotional program with a retailer that ranges from digital couponing to blogging and Pinterest support. On the consumer advertising front, our mix ranges from traditional print to online interactive ads to social media promoted posts.”