Marketing patterns for the major apple producing states were examined by O.P.Burke in 1978. Using USDA data, he found that Michigan and New York supplied the market with a relatively stable quantity of fresh apples over an extended marketing period, beginning in September and ending in March. Further, in high production years, these two states tended to expand their marketing activities geographically.
*Ohio grower attitudes must, to some extent, be influenced by the presence of over lo million urban consumers nearby, an advantage unavailable to producers in Washington, for example, or to growers in many eastern states where production is farther from population centers.
All other states, except Washington, marketed most of their fresh apples in a brief marketing period during September and October. Ohio growers display both of these marketing patterns due probably to the diversity in Ohio of both markets (Table 6), and products (Tables 7 and 8). For Washington, sales are relatively low in these fall months, reach a peak in December, remain strong throughout the winter, and reach their annual high point - in March. As supplies of soft fruits (apricots, cherries, peaches, plums) and berries (blueberries, strawberries) become available in spring and summer, Washington inventories and marketings decline about May and have terminated in past summers, although availability now continues until the new crop is released in September (Uchida, O'Rourke).
In examining the competition between apples and other fruits, O'Rourke found that (a) bananas tended to be in fairly constant supply throughout the year, (b) citrus fruits were most plentiful in winter (December through March), and (c) soft fruits were most plentiful from June to September.
Hence, apples appear to experience less competition from other fruits
during fall and spring months, and might enjoy periods when revenues
could be maximized by (a) a thoughtful marketing strategy, and (b) a
judicious timing of sales from storage of (c) a uniformly attractive
retail product. These circumstances help to explain three categories
of investment commonly found among large apple growers: (l)
controlled atmosphere (CA) storage; (2) apple waxer/ sizer lines; and
(3) participation in cooperative marketing agencies (Uchida).