Hard times hit Sonoma County apple growers

Rotting fruit is covering the ground of Apple Country this fall as growers can't find a home for all their Jonathan, Rome Beauty and other late-variety apples.

The recession, a large U.S. crop and an overwhelming volume of cheap juice concentrate from China have combined to limit the amount of apples that Sonoma County farmers can sell this year.

The price for processed fruit has been cut by as much as half, and many farmers will sell a third less of their late-variety apples.

The outlook is poor for a local industry that sends most of its crop to be made into juice and apple sauce, not for sale fresh in the supermarket fruit aisle.

China, the world's largest apple producer, “was the nail in the coffin,” said apple farmer Stan Devoto, standing in an orchard carpeted with nine varieties of red and green apples west of Sebastopol.

“Normally we would pick this up twice a week,” he said of the Arkansas Black, Mutsu, Golden Delicious and other varieties that have fallen in the six-acre orchard. Those ground apples, known as windfalls, used to go to a juice processor, but this season the company isn't accepting them.

The downturn worries food advocates who don't want to lose Sebastopol's iconic apple, the early ripening Gravenstein. The international group Slow Foods is working to preserve the Gravenstein, a tart, aromatic favorite in pies, persuading more than 60 Bay Area restaurants to feature the apple on menus this summer.

But the group is learning that the fate of the heirloom apple is linked to the future of the county's apple industry.

“To save the Grav, you have to save the farmer,” said Paula Shatkin, a leader of Slow Food Russian River.

“The farmers that grow Gravs also are growing other varieties,” Shatkin said. “And if they stop growing them, they'll stop growing Gravs.”

The county's apple industry has declined sharply over the past six decades. In 1951, the county had 10,000 acres of apples, 7,000 in Gravensteins. The crop report for that year counted 27 apple processors and 26 “handlers” or packers of fresh apples.

Today, the county has one remaining processor, one fresh apple packer and only 2,800 acres of apples. Of that acreage, fewer than 900 are Gravensteins.

The county's apple farmers long have been swimming against the tide. Nearly two-thirds of the $2 billion U.S. apple crop is sold fresh, which brings in three times the price compared to that of processed apples. In contrast, only 7 percent of the county's $8 million apple crop went to the fresh market last year.

County farmers face competition from inside and outside the United States.

Other American apple farmers, who this year are projected to bring in the 11th-largest crop on record, make 85 percent of their money on their fresh crop, according to the U.S. Apple Association. And they are willing to sell their surplus apples to processors at much less than the cost of producing the fruit in Sonoma County.

“It's literally a byproduct rather than ‘The Product,'” explained John Martinelli, president of S. Martinelli & Co. of Watsonville, one of two remaining processors that buy Sonoma County apples.

Meanwhile, the past decade has seen a staggering increase in juice concentrate produced in China. The U.S. Agriculture Department reports China is now the largest fruit-juice exporter to this country, a position formerly held by citrus juice-producer Brazil.

“The processing market is really driven from the concentrate from China,” said Steve Lutz, former CEO of the Washington Apple Commission and now executive vice president of the consulting firm Perishables Group of West Dundee, Ill. “It's just very, very difficult to compete with cheap concentrate coming out of China.”

On the store shelves, apple juice made from Chinese concentrate is selling this year for as little as $3 a gallon.

“My price is nearly three times that,” said Martinelli, whose family's 141-year-old company makes all its juices from fresh U.S. apples. He estimated that less than a quarter of apple juice sold in this country comes from domestic fruit.

The other processor that buys Sonoma County apples is Manzana Products, located north of Sebastopol. The company, started in 1922, now reports 75 percent of its sales are organic apple juice, apple sauce and vinegar, and it takes all the Gravenstein and organic apples it can get locally.

But the market for conventional late-variety apples keeps shrinking, and in the recession retailers are especially careful about the size of their orders.

“It's been decreasing each year,” Suzanne Kaido, an owner with her cousin Dick Norton, said of the conventional apple sales. “This year it's just worse than ever.”

Unlike Martinelli, Manzana continues to accept windfalls. But the company set a minimum apple size of 2.5 inches. That was enough to prevent the harvest of 100 tons of undersized Gala apples now lying in an orchard north of Sebastopol.

The farmer, Randy Roberts, like other growers, was quick to emphasize that the apple processors are key to the farmers' survival and aren't to blame for what is happening this year. Moreover, he said, the falling prices are a bigger concern for him than the loss of tonnage from one orchard that could have used more rainfall.

Nonetheless, standing in the darkened orchard between a full moon and the dawning sun, Roberts acknowledged the fallen Galas are a difficult thing to behold.

“It's hard to just let 'em rot,” he said.

Both Roberts and Devoto are in the midst of a three-year conversion to have their apples certified as organic. They hope the organic designation will give them access to a niche market and provide more stability.

Martinelli and others said the farmers also should take more advantage of their proximity to the Bay Area population.

“Developing a local fresh market is probably the single best thing they could do because it basically addresses a lot of the new thinking for green consumers, buying locally, reducing your carbon footprint ... and building your local economy,” Martinelli said.

Lee Walker, a farmer outside Graton and the last remaining apple packer, said five generations of his family have harvested Gravensteins.

Like many other farmers, the Walkers are bringing in extra income through direct sales at farmers markets and at their farm. Even so, he is concerned about the outlook for his industry.

“Somehow we're going to have to make a change,” Walker said.