Articles of Interest

Millions of bushels will be picked in Central Virginia this fall, to be shipped to grocery stores and processing plants across the region.

But though the apple is still one of the state’s top crops, the industry is changing. Experts say new market pressures and shrinking profit margins are affecting orchards nationwide, changing the way apple growers do business.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 300 million pounds of apples were produced in Virginia in 2004, the sixth-most of any state.

Locally, Nelson and Albemarle counties are consistently among Virginia’s top apple-growing regions.

“Central Virginia is one of the major apple-producing regions in the state,” said Spencer Neale, a commodities specialist at the Virginia Farm Bureau.

However, the number of orchards in Virginia has been dwindling in recent years, Neale said.

There are many possible reasons for the decline: land values have skyrocketed and operating costs have increased, while many of the local grocers who once bought from smaller orchards have closed, he said.

Meanwhile, the vast production of apples at large commercial orchards in Washington and in countries such as China has kept the price of apples low, making it harder for comparatively smaller Virginia farms to turn a profit, experts say.

“The prices now are less than they were 20 years ago, with the costs more than they were 20 years ago,” said David Robishaw, a Charlottesville-based marketing specialist with the state agriculture department.

Traditionally, Virginia apple growers have sold their product either to retailers for sale in stores, or to processing plants, which use the apples in other food products such as applesauce, Robishaw said.

In recent years, China has been growing massive amounts of apples. Production costs are cheaper than in the United States and the end result is that the Chinese can produce a much less expensive product, Robishaw said.

“Roughly speaking, Virginia has 20,000 acres, tops, of apples,” he said. “Washington state has like 200,000. We don’t have hard facts for China, but the best guess is that they have around 2 million acres of apples.”

Though the Chinese don’t export many fresh apples to the U.S., they have flooded the market with apples for processing, which has helped keep down the price of apples U.S. growers sell for processing, Robishaw said.

“For growers, those apples used to bring good money, and now they don’t.”

In years past, most Central Virginia orchards were small, family-owned operations, Robishaw said. But as profits have shrunk and land values have grown, some owners have sold, he said.

“There’s tremendous pressure to develop if your profitability is somewhat limited,” Neale said. “The land is the main asset that farmers own. They want to do everything they can to keep it, but sometimes [selling] is a business decision.”

But some area orchards are responding to the changes in the industry by creating new uses for their land and developing sales outlets that have nothing to do with grocery stores or processing plants.

Direct to consumers

The Chiles family has been growing apples in Albemarle County since 1912, when the Crown Orchard Company was created. Today, the family is in its fourth generation of apple growers.

The Chiles operate Carter Mountain Orchard, located off Thomas Jefferson Parkway near Monticello. Though still a traditional orchard in many ways, the 200-acre farm is growing beyond its commercial enterprise, according to retail manager Cynthia Chiles.

Chiles breaks the operation down into two segments: the commercial side, which produces the fruit shipped to grocery stores or for processing, and the retail side, which includes on-site sales to visitors.

“Right now, we’re about 75 percent commercial and 25 percent retail,” she said. “But we’re trying to push it more toward the retail side, letting the customers come here and experience it for themselves.”

Located at the top of a ridge, Carter Mountain Orchard overlooks Charlottesville and much of the surrounding area. The picturesque views and proximity to Monticello and Michie Tavern help draw in tourists, who are an increasing part of the orchard business, Chiles said.

These visitors include shoppers drawn to Carter Mountain’s storefront and families who come to pick their own fruit or picnic. There’s even an industry term for it: agri-tourism.

The fall, which is traditionally apple-harvesting time in Virginia, is now also the season for school visits. From early September through the end of October, thousands of children will take field trips to Carter Mountain Orchard, Chiles said.

“Agriculture education is so important, because too many farms are going to the wayside,” she said. “This gives kids a chance to see where their food comes from.”

Agri-tourism may be especially beneficial for smaller Central Virginia orchards, Neale said. Larger orchards, including those at the northern end of the Shenandoah Valley, the state’s primary apple-producing region, are organized more to maximize the harvest than to entertain on-site visitors, Neale said.

“Most of the area growers are now doing a lot of retail, like Carter Mountain,” Robishaw said. “The visitors do the hayride, pick their own fruit and maybe do a picnic lunch.”

Heirloom varieties

In addition to the school visits and on-site sales, Carter Mountain has also grown its business in other directions. There are now 25 acres of wine grapes growing next to the apples and peaches, and the orchard is hosting more weddings and other events, Chiles said.

Robishaw said the larger and more streamlined commercial orchards in areas such as Washington State and China have also created a niche for another type of business: smaller orchards that grow heirloom fruit, a term for older varieties that aren’t mass-produced.

The red delicious and the golden delicious dominate apple sales in most grocery stores. But there are hundreds of other varieties that aren’t mass-produced.

Some have fallen out of favor because they aren’t as nice looking, or because they don’t keep well. But some of these heirloom apples are flat-out superior in taste, according to Charlotte Shelton, one of the owners of Vintage Virginia Apples in North Garden.

Shelton, an investment banker and former history professor, decided to open a small orchard specializing in heirloom fruit several years ago with her father and brothers.

“What we are interested in is preserving varieties of fruit that have a special merit, because of flavor or some other attribute, that are not readily available in the commercial arena,” Shelton said.

Instead of the red and golden delicious, Vintage Virginia Apples grow varieties with names like black twig, stayman and the Albemarle pippin, which originated at the turn of the 18th century in Long Island, N.Y., but is named after Albemarle County because it grows well in the area, Shelton said.

Vintage Virginia Apples has also ventured into the world of agri-tourism. The company regularly hold classes on how to grow and maintain apple trees, and will host a harvest festival on Nov. 4, Shelton said.

“We’re very small, but we’re growing,” she said.

Despite the challenges facing the apple industry, its roots are deep in the Central Virginia area and the state, Robishaw said.

“We’ve got a lot of growers doing just wonderful things, and doing well,” he said.