Imports of apples from China are at an all-time high while American apples are rotting on the ground.
So many imported apples have flooded the market that U.S. crops are not selling. In 1990 China produced 4.3 million metric tons of apples. That
number has reached 18 million today. The rate of increase is not slowing down, which is of concern to farmers now caught with apples they cannot even afford to pick.
The devastating Asian economy forced China to find other markets for its apples, a market that was once served by American apples. Apples from China are now being made into concentrate, which is then sent to the U.S. American apples can’t compete with the extremely low price offered by the Chinese imported concentrate. The demand for American apples has all but vanished.
Imports are also coming from Europe and other parts of Asia, according to World Apple Review, a trade magazine. This year’s American crop is one of the largest ever, yet there is nowhere to sell them.
One of the largest apple growers in Utah is letting 600,000 pounds of apples rot. He blames the low prices of foreign apples for his troubles.
“This has never happened to us before,” said W. Morris Ercanbrack, who blames the “world market.”
Apples are also coming in from Chile. The combination of increased imports with no rising demand has left American growers with devastation.
Bob Wright, another Utah apple grower, says the wholesale price of apples is so low he can’t afford to pay anyone to pick his orchard. The only choice he has is to let the apples fall off the trees and rot.
The price of imported apple concentrate is so low that processors will not consider buying from local growers. The wholesale price has dropped 50 percent in just one year.
The supermarket chains have confirmed that the prices they are charging at retail for apples is virtually the same as it was a year ago, despite the fact that the wholesale price is down.
The supermarkets are making 200 to 300 percent profit while American growers are taking a beating, according to Bill Ferguson, another Utah apple grower.
Last year Utah produced apples worth $4.2 million. This year will be only a fraction of that according to predictions from the agriculture office at Utah State University. Part of the blame is imports, but Americans are eating less fruit, says a university spokesman.
Over 80 percent of the commercial apples grown in Utah come from Utah County, home of Brigham Young University. A drive past orchards in that area revealed the ground nearly covered by rotting apples.
Small growers have been able to break even, or even make a little profit at local farmer’s markets and roadside stands. The large growers have far more apples than what the local retail market will absorb.
Washington State apple growers were unable to market their crop throughout the Pacific rim as they have in the past. They quickly moved what apples they could to fill what little demand remained in the U.S. market — mostly at a loss. Ferguson claims the Washington growers will see a bigger pinch in years ahead.
The rate of increase of Chinese and other foreign apples in the world market will bring greater problems next year. Growers throughout America who are not as hard hit as Utah is now will find that the market will be getting worse before it gets better, according to Ercanbrack.
David M. Bresnahan ([email protected]) is a contributing editor of
WorldNetDaily.com, is the author of “Cover Up: The Art and Science of Political Deception,” and offers a monthly newsletter “Talk USA Investigative Reports.”
