11/01/05 Storage report out today

November First is traditionally a big day in our region's fruit industry calendar. That is roughly around the time the Yakima Valley Growers Shippers Association and Wenatchee Valley Traffic Association jointly produce their end of harvest apple storage report. The 2005 report should be finalized today, with the numbers released later in the week. Now there has been some debate within the industry where those final numbers will eventually lead. Miles Kohl of the Yakima Valley Growers Shippers Association says part of the discrepancy comes from different reports from the various growing regions. KOHL: The Yakima District is experience a little bit different harvest experience than some of the more northern districts, in Wenatchee north. It seems like Wenatchee north is tending to pick out at or a little above estimates, where the Yakima District is a little more of a mixed bag. Some are picking at or above estimate, others are well below estimate. And according to Kohl, the reason the Yakima District numbers are up in the air has little to do with drought like conditions that plagued some parts during the growing season. That won't show up until later as the fruit is packed. KOHL: I think what we're seeing at this point specific to the Yakima area is we did have a colder spring with a lot of wind, so we didn't have very good pollenization weather and didn't have very good weather during that initial cell division within the fruit cycle.