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New York, the second largest producer of apples in the country, accounts for 13 percent of all apples in the U.S. New York is usually considered a prime region for apple growing due to its freezing winters and warm summers, which are ideal growing conditions for apples. The best apples grow in regions where they can obtain 500 to 1000 chilling hours—conditions below 45 degrees Fahrenheit—but still receive abundant sunshine in the summer. Despite their need for cool winter temperatures, orchards are actually vulnerable to damage from cold weather in the spring, when crops are preparing to bloom. Freezing temperatures, frost, or hail can destroy entire crops during the bloom, according to the U.S. International Trade Commission (ITC).
Unfortunately for New York apple farmers, an unseasonably mild winter and spring frosts that lasted into the month of May failed to bring about the ideal weather conditions for apple farming. Due to the bad weather that made impacts throughout New York State, Cornell’s Lake Erie Regional Research Laboratory estimated a 50 percent apple crop loss this season.
“Apple farmers are very dependent on the weather for a good crop. When the weather fails them, they have no control over it. Two out of three years with crop failure from frost can be quite devastating,” said Isabel Prescott, owner of Riverview Orchards in Clifton Park, which she projects has lost about 75 percent of its apple crop due to the wild weather.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed that statistic in August when they released a report stating that New York’s total apple production is estimated to be only 590 million pounds this year, down 52 percent from last year’s 1.22 billion pound apple crop.
In a state that depends on profits from apple production, these crop losses will yield heavy economic losses as well.
New York’s 694 family apple farms employ 10,000 people and support another 7,500 jobs indirectly that depend on a robust apple crop, according to the New York Apple Association (NYAA).
These statistics prompted several state legislators to call for a special legislature session in June to discuss a bill that would possibly give some of these farmers and small businesses some tax relief.
The “Family Farmers and Apple Growers Relief Act” would establish a specialized tax credit for the 2012 tax year that will allow a farmer to claim 35 percent of their crop losses, according to a press release from Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, one of the legislators who helped draft the bill.
The Senate version of the bill was introduced in June but remains listed as unfinished business in the legislature.
“The wild weather we’ve experienced over the past year has taken a big bite out of the big apple of New York’s economy: our family farmers and apple growers. Our ‘Family Farmers and Apple Growers Relief Act’ sends the message that our state government has the backs of our family farmers who are small businesses that are creating and supporting jobs across New York State,” said Tedisco, former Minority Leader and current Assistant Minority Whip in the New York State Assembly.
Though crop losses and economic losses remain uncertain, it’s not all bad news for apple farmers and consumers—the Ginger Gold apple crop has actually harvested earlier than ever due to early warm weather in March. In the upstate region along the shore of Lake Ontario, the fall harvest started the week of August 15 for all apple consumers to enjoy.
