Securing Freight Cars for the Apple Harvest
A collapse in the California citrus market offers a rare logistical lifeline for Northwest apple growers worried about transporting their crops.
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As the outcome of representations to the authorities at Washington City, the Northwest apple crop movement this season will likely be facilitated. J. Curtis Robinson, chairman of the transportation and storage committee of the Fruit Growers agency, has been working to resolve the car supply shortage. On July 25, he forwarded facts concerning a massive decline in California's orange and lemon crops, which will free up refrigerated rail equipment for the Northwest. Reliable information suggests 50 to 60 percent of the normal California orange crop has been destroyed. These rail cars usually move citrus between March and June, but the Northwest requires them most urgently between November and January. Senator Wesley L. Jones has brought this information to the attention of the President, the Council of National Defense, and Herbert Hoover, who expressed support for diverting this equipment to move the apple crop, which is projected to reach 8,000 cars each in the Wenatchee and Yakima Valleys, with additional thousands from Spokane, Walla Walla, and Oregon districts.
“It is in November, December and January, between seasons in California, that we in the Northwest have the greatest need for refrigerator cars for apple shipments.”
This piece highlights the perennial struggle of Washington agriculture—the disconnect between producing a bounty and having the infrastructure to move it to market. Today, the crisis has shifted from railroad boxcars to container shortages and supply chain bottlenecks at coastal ports, but the anxiety over a perishable harvest remains a cornerstone of the regional economy.
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