Editor’s note: The following profile is from the 2024 Packer 25, our annual tribute to 25 leaders, innovators and agents of change across the fresh produce supply chain. (You can view all honorees here.) This feature has been edited for length and clarity.
Chris Gerlach — Vice president of insights and analytics, U.S. Apple Association
Chris Gerlach joined the U.S. Apple Association (USApple) in July 2020 as the director of industry analytics. During his four years in the role, he used his economic and data analytics skills to prepare proprietary reports, webinars and presentations that offer business intelligence to the apple industry.
USApple recently promoted Gerlach to vice president of insights and analytics earlier this year.
In that announcement, the association touted Gerlach’s ability to turn complex information into insights with clear takeaway messages. It also said he formats the data he reports on in easy-to-understand graphics and charts, which have been instrumental in meetings with White House officials, members of Congress or media outreach.
Before joining USApple, Gerlach served as the director of research for the International Council of Shopping Centers. In that role, he generated original economic research on the $6.7 trillion retail real estate industry. He holds a master’s degree in regional planning from the University of North Carolina and an MBA from the George Washington University School of Business.
What’s the most surprising thing you’ve learned about the apple industry in your time with USApple?
I am in awe of the sheer complexity of it all. In the orchard, growers must plan years ahead, ordering and planting varieties and rootstocks that will maximize yield while minimizing costs, but be cognizant of ever-changing market prices and consumer preferences. Thinning decisions have to be made before inclement weather can be predicted. Planting systems have to be selected to strike a balance between increased density and uniformity. In a dozen different ways, apple growers have to make costly, long-lasting decisions with imperfect information — and they do it with a smile, generation after generation.
Beyond the orchard, the endlessly fascinating complexities continue in the storage houses, packers, processors, sales desks and countless other supporting industries.
What’s the biggest challenge you see facing the apple industry right now? What’s the biggest opportunity?
The most significant challenge by far is access to abundant, affordable labor. The number of domestic workers willing and able to pick 11 billion pounds of apples by hand is simply not available during the few months of harvest when they are needed. The U.S. apple industry relies on the Temporary Agricultural Worker Program (H-2A visas) to do this this work, and the costs of that labor are up more than 60% over the decade — not to mention the additional required costs associated with housing, transportation and administrative fees.
Because of these rising labor costs, the U.S. apple industry has had to get more efficient. New planting systems are typically of higher density than the ones they are replacing leading to greater yields. Precision agriculture techniques and integrated pest management policies have helped to reduce non-labor input costs. But these improvements have limits.
The real game-changer will be the development of automated harvesting, which is still years away. In the meantime, the opportunities lie in increasing consumption either domestically or through international exports. The U.S. grows the world’s best apples; if we can do a better job educating consumers about the new varieties on offer and reminding them about the extraordinary health benefits of eating more apples, we have a real chance to increase demand.
What excites you the most about the future of the fresh produce industry and the work that you do?
With a push toward controlling costs through improved efficiencies, data technology companies are currently flooding into the space to provide tracking and monitoring solutions that address a wide range of issues. In fact, there are so many vendors offering targeted solutions to niche problems that new platforms are being developed just to bring these unique datasets together to be analyzed holistically, generating insights at the organizational level.
It will be an exciting few years as vendors come and go and the industry settles into new standardized metrics of success. I will be keeping my eye on these developments and working with many of these companies to generate the next generation of performance benchmarks.
What is it about data and numbers that interest you?
For the most part, numbers are objective. They provide an unvarnished assessment of reality that gives users, collaborators and competitors alike a level playing field on which to base strategic decisions. The conclusions reached through the analysis of those data may be very different depending on the user, but the starting point will be the same.
One’s competitive advantage lies in their ability to understand the strengths and weaknesses of any dataset, adjust accordingly, and see the story in the numbers. I look at a new dataset like a puzzle to be solved. I relish the process of pulling it apart, rearranging it and reading the stories it has to tell.
Did you ever think you’d work in the apple industry?
No, I can’t say that I ever thought of working in the apple industry, but I’m not necessarily surprised. After spending a decade researching retail real estate, one may not think there is much overlap, but at its core, my role is much the same: to deliver value-added data and analysis to member companies large and small, from the first link in the supply chain to the last. As long as I have some baseline understanding of how an industry operates and how decisions are made, I feel that I can deliver that value. I am forever grateful that USApple gave me the opportunity to prove it.
Tell our readers about Newton and about the importance of good data for the apple industry.
When I started at USApple, I was put in charge of the national storage report, a monthly accounting of apple holdings by state, variety, use and storage type. At the time, the historical data were not available to anyone but me or those who kept the hard copies of prior reports. Given the value of the data, it was important to put the figures in a more useable and easily accessible format that allowed members to ask questions and discover longer-term trends. The Newton database was built to provide that access along with access to other statistics on production, utilization, trade, prices and more. It is my hope that by providing this one-stop shop for apple-related data, our members will be empowered to generate their own insights that guide strategic decision-making and help to ensure long-term success.
