News
Apple shortage affects Clinton
By Taylor Coe '13
September 27, 2012
With a feeling more familiar to the gas pump, some patrons at the counter of the Clinton Cider Mill might be surprised this semester at the prices of cider and donuts.
Although the price changes are by no means astronomical, they still give notice to the large fluctuation in the apple market due to the small crop this season in central New York and the larger implications of that crop.
Even Bon Appétit has been dealing with the effect of the small market this season. According to Bon Appétit General Manager Patrick Raynard, Bon Appétit has seen a 30-40 percent increase in the cost of local apples. “The cost has not hindered us from purchasing them,” Raynard said. “The main problem we are dealing with is supply.”
But while everyone seems to be aware of this small supply, not everyone is aware of the reasons for it.
“There’s a lot of misinformation out there,” said George Joseph, owner of North Star Orchards in Clinton. “People think it’s the dryness and the heat from the summer.” But the genesis of the current apple shortage, Joseph explains, goes back further than that—all the way to the late winter and early spring.
Last March, the temperature was unseasonably warm, occasionally shooting all the way up to 80-85° F. Those high temperatures meant an early start for some flowering plants—including apple trees. The trees were already blossoming in April when a late frost saw the temperature drop back down to 25° F.
“It’s probably the most tender time of development,” said Joseph, of this stage in the apples’ growth. “The frost was enough to freeze the blossoms and any bud development.” As a result of this late frost, Joseph saw his farm lose 70% of its apple crop.
The weak apple crop, however, did not spell economic disaster for Joseph’s farm. Not only has the farm seen worse apple season—freezing out and losing 80% of the crop—the farms grows a lot more than just central New York’s favorite fruit. In addition to apples, the farm grows everything from tomatoes to grapes to pumpkins. “Across the board, not everything did well, but we’re pretty diverse,” he said. In fact, this past year saw the farm’s best blueberry crop in the roughly 30 years that Joseph has been growing the fruit. Because blueberries thrive after mild winters, the crop was not affected by the late frost in the same way as the apples.
The small apple crop this season was not limited to North Star Orchards and other local farms; the state of New York as a whole saw a 54% loss of the total apple crop. Though the New York apple market is relatively small on a national scale—the orchards of Washington State yield more apples than all the other states combined—the small crop may have ripple effects in the national beverage market.
Mott’s, a subsidiary of Dr. Pepper Snapple Group, is headquartered in Rochester, NY, and draws apples from farms across the state for the production of juices, concentrates and applesauce. A representative from Mott’s declined to comment on this story.
The effect of the small crop remains most noticeable on a local scale at the Cider Mill, where short apple supply has impacted several parts of the business. One such impact has been on the price of cider and donuts.
But even though the price of a half-gallon of cider has gone up more than a dollar to $4.95, Helen Lucey ’13, who works at the Cider Mill, claims that most people have not commented on the difference.
“I’ve only had two people notice it,” she said. Instead, what more customers have noticed is the lack of gallons of cider, which the Cider Mill has decided not to sell this year, opting instead to sell only smaller sizes.
“That’s been a bit of a problem,” Lucey said, noting that the gallon size has been missed by several customers. “It’s a basic Economic 101 problem,” said Ben Fehlner, owner of the mill. “There’s the same amount of demand and a dramatically lower supply.”
Fehlner stressed that the rise in prices and the lack of gallon jugs is merely the sign of market forces.
“We’re not trying to gouge customers,” he said.
But even the price hike has not kept customers away.
“The high price of cider and donuts has not affected my willingness to go to the Cider Mill,” said Louisa Savage ’13. “I will happily spend a little extra money to get my cider-donut combo,” she added. “So far, we have very loyal, very dedicated, and very understanding customers,” Fehlner said. “They’re not here for a product; they’re here for an experience.”
The Cider Mill, Fehlner pointed out, has become a key location in the local Clinton area, due to its promixity not only to the Clinton Central School and downtown Clinton. Customers often bring their families to the mill and meet their friends there. Fehlner frames the mill as being nearly as much a town meeting place as a business.
“The side benefit,” he said of his customers’ experience at the mill, “is that they get to enjoy the product.”