New England Apple Inc Case Summary

Executive Summary
The New England Apple production has been at a steady decline over the past three decades. This can be attributed to several important factors. First, we shall take a look at the global market. China is far surpassed the United States in apple production, and is currently on a steady incline of production since the turn of the century. Now, looking solely at US apple production, we can see that the market has been on the rise. However, this is mostly attributed to production in the state of Washington since the New England states only account for about 1.6% of the nation’s apples. Based on this information, there is an obvious and dire need to revive the New England apple industry in order to increase grower profitability
In 1982, some 1,691 farms produced apples on 29,943 acres—an average size of 17.7 acres of apples per farm. By 2007, while the farm count had only declined to 1,514 farms, the acreage devoted to apples fell to 15,286—10.1 acres per farm (Lee, Weber). Based on this information, one can see that the number and acres of farms in this area are decreasing. This is an issue that is well known to the New England Apple Association and its executive director, Russell Powell. There are a couple of key problems that particularly need to be addressed. One of these is associated with competition. New England’s competitors are dominating the apple market, both domestically and internationally. This will undoubtedly cause New England apples to increasingly lose market share if nothing is done. Another problem is when we look at options to create sliced apples. Currently, there are very few facilities available that are within sufficient range of their orchards. The New England Apple Association must find a way to establish a trade connection with these facilities or come up with different ways to slice their apple in order to tap into the sliced apple
This option has the most balance of cost efficiency and productivity. This will allow growers the exact type of outlet they require for their product while also allowing the cutting facility to work with the farmers in perfect harmony. Working together, they can cover more financially and find ways to collaborate and save even more on costs using predefined methods of stacking, packing, transportation, specialized equipment, and utmost quality that will sit perfectly with all involved. This solution is the best option taking both cost and convenience into account. In order to implement this strategy, the New England Apple Association must first build the slicing facilities in the most convenient areas in New England. This would be the most expensive part of this option, but one can think of this in terms of fixed costs. Over time, fixed costs are negated as more money is made. Next, they would have to establish a Co-op that includes producers, packers, and slicing facilities. From that point, all that is left is to ship the finished product to the appropriate wholesaler in the New England area. With this solution, the New England Apple Association should be able to revive the New England apple industry and also safely