The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has released its August forecast for the 2012/13 US apple campaign, the first one of the season, with the organisation predicting an overall drop ion the country’s crop.

In the report, the USDA said that nationwide volumes would be down 14 per cent on the previous season, coming in at 192m bushels (3.65m tonnes), falling from 224m bushels (4.27m tonnes).

There are set to be major year-on-year shortfalls in the eastern and central states, the USDA predicted, while the western states ate actually expected to grow – with Washington apparently expected to make up 70 per cent of US production, up from 57 per cent last year.

The USDA said that eastern states would see a production fall of 31 per cent to 726,000 tonnes, while central state volumes would drop 79 per cent to 114,000 tonnes.

That leaves the western states with growth of 6 per cent to 2.82m tonnes, of which Washington is expected to produce 2.59m tonnes with an increase in numbers of 5 per cent, the USDA reported.

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