Apple Growers Form New Cooperative

The state’s biggest apple growers’ association has formed a cooperative to negotiate a minimum price with processors for lower-quality fruit bound for the processing market.

The Processed Apple Growers Association of Washington plans to negotiate a floor price with processors this fall for apples used to make juice and other products. The cooperative, a brainchild of the Washington Association of Apple Growers, has been under development for more than two years.

The amount of fruit diverted to processing usually amounts to about a quarter of the total state crop, which was 79.5 million 42-pound boxes last year.

The new group’s goal is to bolster grower returns for processing apples and to provide a minimum price for the fresh market as well, said Rob Valicoff of Parker Heights, president of the Washington Association of Apple Growers.