Wrapping Up The Pink Lady

Wrapping Up The Pink Lady. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Alan Taylor, Pink Lady America is an optimistic man and with a product like the Pink Lady apple, it’s easy to be that way.

TAYLOR: We’re very optimistic about the crop this year. We had an earlier estimate from the Yakima Valley Grower Shippers Association which said we were going to have around 2.6 million boxes or just over that figure and that compares to 2.3 million last year so we’re very optimistic about the volume of the crop and the quality looks to be quite good

Most Pink Lady producers should be about done with picking.

TAYLOR: Hopefully the harvest is pretty much over. There may be a few pieces of fruit out there but we moved 38-thousand boxes last week and 73-thousand for the season already so I think the harvest is pretty much “in the barn” as they say and the fruit is starting to go out.

Like a lot of fruit producers they are looking at some fun and unusual ways to get their product noticed.

TAYLOR: Well we’ve got a number of things we’re looking at to support the crop, food publicity would be one of them, stories in food magazines and on cable shows. Rachel Ray and Paula Deen will both be testing the product, Paula Deen probably looking for a way to put butter on Pink Ladies. We’ll be supporting retail promotions and also have point-of-sale material and also looking ahead to the Valentine’s Day period.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.