BUSINESS BRIEF

Best apple crop ever predicted for Michigan

8/26/2014

LANSING — Michigan’s apple crop should be among its best ever, according to a new report.

The U.S. Apple Association Outlook Conference in Chicago forecast that Michigan will have a 2014 harvest of about 29 million bushels. That’s close to the 30 million bushel record set in 2013.

“The crop is looking great,” Diane Smith, executive director of the Michigan Apple Committee, told the Detroit Free Press. “We grow apples pretty much across the state. The size of them is incredible. The quality is great. We’ve had a lot of up and down years and to have a back-to-back fantastic crop is wonderful.”

Michigan’s fruit growers suffered huge losses in 2012 because of an early thaw followed by a deep freeze.