Smaller Va. apple crop predicted

ROANOKE -- Virginia's apple farmers are predicting a smaller crop than usual, and prices are staying low.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts that Virginia growers will produce 30 million fewer pounds than last year. Wholesale prices of apples from the state have fallen about 16 cents per pound, to 34 cents a pound, since last year.

Most Virginia apples end up at processing plants for cutting, canning, peeling and juicing.

Spencer Neal, the Virginia Farm Bureau Federation's commodities specialist, says national apple prices fell 30 percent in a year. But elsewhere in the country, apples are abundant. Michigan's harvest, for example, has doubled since last year.

-- The Associated Press