Washington’s Grant County Could Overtake Yakima For Most Acres Of Apples

A news story from the Yakima News Herald notes between 1978 and 2012, the most recent U.S. agricultural census, Grant County’s (WA) apple acreage has shot up eightfold to more than 43,000. Yakima County increased less than 3%, to 50,000 acres.

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Over the past 35 years, Grant has gone from fifth to second in acres of apples, behind only Yakima.

“They probably right now are the leading producer of apples, no doubt,” said Ray Keller, owner and general manager of Apple King, a Yakima fruit company told the News Herald of Grant County.

The plantings in the Columbia Basin, including Grant County, have 617 trees per acre, compared to the Yakima Valley’s 567, according to a 2011 USDA tree density survey.

Yakima County long ago overtook Chelan County, which includes Wenatchee, even though that city has the moniker “Apple Capital of the World.” Qixia, China, also lays claim to that title, perhaps more accurately considering that region exceeded 100,000 acres a decade ago.

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