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apples and $8 per hundred pounds for canners two and a half inches in diameter and larger. “We could live with that." Snead said. "That's a fair price."
Currently. National Fruit is paying “summer prices" for Rantbo apples—S5 for canners and $3.50 for anything else. "That's ridiculous. You can't even grow them for $3.50." said Snead. “We need $5 just to break even."
Decline In Orchard Acreage
Rappahannock orchardists have been up against the wall for the past three years. Low prices for their bountiful 1978-79 crop followed two disastrous years when late freezes destroyed almost the entire fruit harvest in the county. Predictions on this year’s crop statewide show an estimated 184 million bushels of apples hanging on the trees—down just one per cent from last year's bumper crop.
But if prices don’t pick up to where they’re at least compatible with those offered by processors in surrounding states, local agricultural experts also knowledgeable in the impact of increasing land values predict that Rappahannock's last commercial orchard will fold by 1984.
During work on the county’s comprehensive plan in April, the Rappahannock Planning Commissioners expressed concern over figures that showed a substantial decline in orchards over the last decade. Land to fruit production dropped from 4,000 acres in 1964 to approximately 2,000 acres in 1974—a decline of 50 per cent. In the same time period, the number of orchards decreased from 104 to 47 and the number of farms producing apples went from 64 to 34. At the time, the planners estimated that the drop in fruit production would be even greater if more current statistics were available.
“We’re really hurting,"
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84.3%