July 13, 2011 - Huron / Wolcott, NY - Wayne County is apple country, and the fresh apple market is gaining ground. There are many newly planted orchards of various size dwarf trees that densely fill the landscape. Farmers are growing more apples, closer to consumers, and in turn, need to keep their product fresh as long as possible. The increase in apple consumption is proof of a maturing, appealing, apple industry.
In response to demand, some apple growers have formed partnerships and are expanding their storage and packaging capacity, right in the middle of apple country, on Ridge Road in Huron, just 4 miles from the Village of Wolcott.
Lake Country Storage Co-op started in 1979 and is a partnership of 9 local and regional apple growers. They recently invested private funding in a 240,000 bushel expansion project which will bring their long-term cold storage capacity to 1 million bushels this fall. A large wooden apple bin holds 20 bushels. The Lake Country facility will be able to store a total of 50,000 bushel-bins of apples for long-term storage.
The main building has 35 rooms capable of holding approximately 1000 bins each. The three expansion buildings will have an additional 8 rooms, each with a 1500 bin capacity. During the busy harvest season, apples are picked and placed into cold storage to bring their temperature down as quickly as possible to slow the natural oxidation process that begins once fruit is picked.
Once fruit fills a storage room, the door is sealed and Randy DeWitt, General Manager at Lake Country, starts to manage the atmosphere in the room by removing most of the oxygen and carbon-dioxide while lowering the temperature to between 32-degrees F and 36-degrees F. “This process controls the condition of the apple and ensures a longer shelf life,” DeWitt explained. “It basically puts the apple to sleep and maintains or improves its quality until we are ready to use it.”
The fresh apple market could not survive without these high-capacity, controlled atmosphere, cold storage facilities. Some local farmers have smaller versions of this to manage their own crops until they get their product to market, but it is expensive technology. Lake Country has seen an increase in apple production over the last 3 years and did the expansion in order to be prepared.
They currently have 6 full time employees and will add 2 positions with the expansion. DeWitt has been with the company for 13 years. “We will easily fill this entire new space this year,” he stated. With computer-aided software, DeWitt will be able to monitor the conditions in each of the rooms from his desk, or remotely.
In a similar approach, next door to Lake Country is a new multi-million dollar apple packaging production line that plans to be up and running by September 1 of this year, just in time for the apple harvest. The Empire Fruit Growers partnership, formerly located on Lake Bluff Rd. in Huron, is building a new, state-of-the-art, washing, sorting and apple packaging facility with the help of Lyons National Bank in Wolcott, Wayne County Industrial Development Agency, and the Empire State Development Corp.
“We are very thankful for all the support,” said Rich Leous, Empire Fruit Growers General Manager. “It is a big project, and everyone has been very helpful in walking us through this process. They should all be commended.”
This very modern production line starts at the north end of the building with two cold storage rooms capable of holding 1500 bins each. When taken from storage, each bin goes to a water flume that immerses the apples into a water bath to limit bruising. They then float along in a river of apples to the rinsing, waxing and drying stations. Next they are sorted for color, weight, and size and then funneled down numerous spurs to the various packing stations. Depending on the type of package, one bin of apples equates to approximately 15 cases of packed product. Cases are then palletized and stored at the south end of the plant to await shipment to market.
The facility will employ 8 full time employees, working up to 40 seasonal employees from September through November during the harvest. Leous stated that packaging will continue from January to June using stored apples from their own rooms and those kept at nearby Lake Country Storage. “The production line should be able to handle approximately 200 bins a day,” Leous said. Eventually, Empire would like to be able to move to double shift production and hire more people. “This is a wonderful set up for packaging design,” he commented.
Leous has been in food manufacturing for 20 years. He was an employee at Wolcott’s Reckitt Benckiser and was transferred to Missouri when the food processing and manufacturing company moved out of town. “My wife, Robin Harper, grew up here,” said Leous. She was a graduate of North Rose-Wolcott High School in the 80’s and will be moving here soon with their two boys, ages 9 and 11. ###
