Early apple harvest for farmers in Region of Waterloo

Good season for apple farmers in Waterloo Region Apples are being harvested early this year, thanks to the great growing conditions in southern Ontario. Colton Wiens explains.

Apple trees are already being harvested at the Martin's Family Fruit Farm in Waterloo, Ont., at least one week ahead of their typical schedule.

“Been off to an earlier start than normal, probably seven to 10 days,” said President and CEO Kevin Martin. “We had an early start in the spring and that just translated all the way through to harvest,”

Martin said typical changes in weather throughout the growing season would slow down any early production, but this year is different.

“Growing season is long enough for apples that, [if] there's some offsetting weather [or] cooler weather, it translates into maybe two or three days early. But this year we had a really consistent growing season throughout,” Martin explained.

He added that, typically, the farm needs to make use of its irrigation system quite a bit, but this year they only had to use it a little bit.

“We had good heat, good rain and we had some good coloring weather,” he said.

According to Martin, Gala apples make up 40 per cent of the farms total volume and is the type of apple that is eaten most in the world.

Martin isn't prepared to call it a bumper crop but said production yields in general are increasing in Ontario year-to-year.

“It's a very good crop. We had a very good crop last year,” he said.

While each growing season depends on a lot of different factors, Martin said North America has started to see almost an oversupply of the fruit.

“Ontario, ourselves though, we're still in a good position,” Martin said.