Bad Economy Not the Thing Affecting Apple Sales

The apple business in Central New York has had a harder year than previous, but not because of the stock market. No, the reason is one far more ominous because not even Barack Obama can't vote for change on this one. Hail. The hail and frost earlier in the spring caused a damaged apple crop. According to the Sales Manager at Beak & Skiff Farms , Candy Morse, "We had a frosty spring where ...some of the blossoms were injured by the frost...Then what apples we did have, we had some bad hail storms go through, and touch and go, they sort of jumped around. Some of the acres were damaged pretty badly with hail." So what does that mean for an apple business? Well, dented apples aren't sold wholesale, which means they're not sold in supermarkets. Instead, those apples are brought to the cider mill where they'll be put into the apple cider the farm makes. So what? Well, apples that are sold wholesale are worth a lot more than apples that go into cider. Wholesale apples draw a bigger profit for the farm. So, in a season where they've had to put a lot more apples into cider, and selling a lot less apples to the supermarket has some unseen repercussions. When asked what the problem with putting apples into cider, Morse said, "We are going to run out of apples a lot sooner." Also, Morse said that competition from Chinese apples has been hard on the business the past couple of years. She said China started shipping out apple concentrate, which is cheaper to buy than apple juice NOT made from concentrate that Beak & Skiff was selling. New York State is the second largest apple producing state in the United States (second to Washington State). The United States is the second largest apple producing country (behind China). On the up side, lower gas prices have been better for the farm. Morse said that families really like coming to the farm for a family trip, because it's an inexpensive trip to make. Also, with more people coming to the farm, their retail business (it's like a little general store that sells pies, cakes, cider, among other things) has been doing a lot better. With their wholesale business going down, the farm has been relying on its retail income.