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Show Fruit will be available this year, says producers Despite severe damage to Utah's fruit crop from the recent frost and earlier winterkill, there will be a supply of fresh fruit for consumers in Utah's fruit stands this year, according to Bill Ferguson, Santaquin, fruit producer and chairman of Utah Farm Bureau's fruit crops committee. "The only thing worse than the recent frost damage would be for our customers to get the false impression that there won't be any Iruit, or that it will be too expensive to buy, and then cancel their plans for home canning," Ferguson said. He said he had concluded, after talking talk-ing to growers and extension service specialists, that the damage in some areas of the state may not be quite as bad as some reports indicated earlier in the week, although a number of growers suflered disastrous losses. "Apricots were hit hard, as were many low lying peach and sweet cherry orchards. Hut many growers will still have a good supply of the major canning cann-ing fruits and we expect to market an excellent quality crop again this year," the Utah county grower said. Ferguson said winterkill earlier in the year actually did much of the damage to peaches. "Kvcn so, we do expect to have some peaches from part of the state to sell this fall," he added. The Farm Bureau leader said that Utah has actually increased its production produc-tion of many fruit crops in recent years, particularly canning cherries and some apple varieties. He said it was just too early to make any accurate assessment of the losses growers will face as a result of the recent re-cent freeze damage. "That kind of a figure will only be available at the end of the season. Clearly, however, fruit production is an important part of Utah's economy and fruit growers are improving the quality of Utah-grown fruit every year," the farmer said. |