Inside Yakima’s Apple Packing Tech: A Behind-the-Scenes Tour

Yakima, Washington is not just farming anymore, it is getting seriously high tech

If you have ever told someone you live in Yakima, Washington, you have probably heard some version of, “Oh, apples!” And yes, we are absolutely an agriculture powerhouse. But what I want to pull back the curtain on today is this, Yakima is not only growing fruit, we are growing technology, talent, and a whole new kind of opportunity.

In the video, I took you inside a real working apple packing facility, and I was honestly geeking out. It is loud, it is busy, and it is the kind of place that makes you feel proud of where you live. This is one of those behind the scenes tours that changes how you see the Valley. Because once you see the scanners, the automation, the tracking, the data systems, you realize we are not stuck in the past. We are building the future right on top of our roots.

And here is the big headline, an organization called FIRA is bringing the world’s largest North America gathering for automation in agriculture to our region. That matters for jobs, education, industry growth, and yes, it even matters for housing demand and the kinds of neighborhoods people want to live in. So let’s talk about what I saw, what it means, and why it is a bigger Yakima story than most people realize.

Inside an apple packing house, where the “magic” is actually engineering

Most folks picture an apple packing house as a bunch of people standing around sorting fruit into boxes. That used to be true. What I walked through felt more like a blend of food production, logistics, and a tech lab, with apples as the star of the show.

The process starts in a way that feels very Yakima, giant bins filled with apples fresh from the orchard. Those bins dump the fruit onto a belt, and the apples literally take a water ride. They are submerged, floated, rinsed, and moved along conveyor lines that keep them from bruising. The details matter, because these apples are heading to grocery stores, warehouses, and tables all over the world.

Then comes the part that really made me stop and stare, the scanners. Each apple sits in its own tray and gets inspected with technology that checks for things most of us cannot see. Quality, skin condition, possible defects, and more. After scanning, the system sorts the apples into different lanes by size, color, and grade. If you ever wondered how the apples in the bag look so uniform, this is how.

Local story moment, I was in there with the noise, the conveyor belts, the bins dumping fruit, and I could not help it, I just felt proud. I said it out loud in the video, our community is feeding the world with apples. That is not a slogan, it is literal. And seeing it up close made me appreciate the skill and care happening in these facilities every day.

What surprised me most, tracking and data follow every box

Once the apples are sorted, the packaging side kicks in. You see branded packaging for different varieties, Cosmic Crisp, Granny Smith, and yes, Honeycrisp, which I will always personally support. Flat boxes go into machines that fold them into finished cartons. Then trays of apples drop in, boxes get closed, protected, labeled, and prepped for shipment.

But here is the jaw dropper, the technology can track fruit at a granular level. Where it was grown, what condition it was in, which box it went into, and where it is shipping. That is not just “cool, ” it is how you compete globally, reduce waste, protect brand quality, and run a modern supply chain.

From cold storage to “ground control”, why this feels like Yakima’s next era

After the packing line, we stepped into cold storage. It is the kind of cold that makes you zip your jacket up and question your life choices for about five seconds. That room exists for one reason, keep fruit as fresh as possible until it ships. Apples are boxed, then routed through the facility to be stacked on pallets and sent out.

Up above, in a glass room the team called ground control, computer systems monitor what is happening across the lines. They are reviewing scan results, quality metrics, and sorting decisions. If you want to understand why agriculture is not “just farming, ” stand in that room. It is data, QA, automation, systems management, and logistics, all tied to something as simple as an apple.

Key takeaway, Yakima’s ag industry increasingly runs on technology, and that creates demand for skilled workers, training programs, and supporting businesses.

The big news, FIRA is coming, and that is a big deal for the Yakima Valley

So why did I take you to a packing warehouse in the first place? Because the tour is the proof behind the bigger story. FIRA, a major organization in automation and agricultural technology, is bringing a conference and industry focus to our area.

It is hard to overstate what that means. These kinds of gatherings bring manufacturers, innovators, investors, educators, and operators into one place. That creates momentum. When a region becomes known as a hub for something, it attracts more of that something.

Three reasons this matters, even if you never plan to pick an apple

• Innovation and leadership in agriculture tech keeps Yakima competitive and attracts new businesses.
• Better paying, specialized jobs often follow automation, robotics, AI, logistics, maintenance, engineering, and operations roles grow.
• This expands beyond apples, think cherries, pears, hops, wine grapes, potatoes, mint, and more across Central Washington.

Robots, drones, AI, and the future orchard you would not recognize

In the video I talk about how drastically things have changed. It used to be thousands of people doing manual sorting and packing tasks by hand. Today, machines fold boxes, scanners grade fruit, and systems track shipments. That trend is not slowing down, it is accelerating.

We are also seeing tech in the field. Drones are used for multiple purposes, and AI driven forecasting is becoming a real tool for growers. Imagine being able to estimate yield per tree with far more accuracy, and then plan labor, packing, shipping, and pricing decisions around that data. That kind of forecasting is an economic advantage.

Another detail that I love pointing out to newcomers, modern orchards look different. Many are trellised and trained in ways that make harvesting more efficient. And yes, part of that shift is to prepare for robotics. I truly believe we will see robots picking fruit in my lifetime, and not as a gimmick. Labor is expensive, availability changes, and machines can run around the clock. The goal is not just replacing people, it is creating consistency, improving safety, and meeting demand while the industry evolves.

What this means if you are considering a move to Yakima, Washington

Let’s connect the dots to real life, because that is what matters if you are looking at relocating. When a region grows a stronger base of stable industries, it impacts employment options, commutes, small business growth, and eventually housing.

Yakima has long been anchored by agriculture, healthcare, education, and logistics. Ag tech adds another layer, and it is one that tends to bring a range of roles, from hands on technical jobs to engineering and management. That can mean more people moving here for work, more folks staying here after training, and more demand for housing that fits a variety of lifestyles.

Practical ways this can show up in housing and daily life

• More diverse job paths for people who love agriculture but want tech, automation, or systems work.
• Growth in supporting services, like equipment maintenance, software, logistics, trucking, and cold chain operations.
• Neighborhood preferences evolve, some buyers prioritize quick access to employers, others want space, shops, or schools.
• Community pride stays strong, Yakima still feels like Yakima, but with more innovation in the mix.

If you are actively house hunting, you can always browse available homes in Yakima. If you are earlier in the process and you want to talk through neighborhoods, commute patterns, or what life feels like here, you can reach out to us. I would rather you ask the “random” questions now than feel surprised later, like, “Wait, why is it so windy today?”

Yakima’s economy is bigger than people think, and that is good news

One of my motivations for filming this kind of tour is simple, I want people to understand what actually powers the Yakima Valley. These facilities employ a lot of people, not just inside the building, but also truckers, warehouse teams, maintenance crews, and the broader network that keeps production moving. When you see it, you realize it is not just fields and farm stands, it is advanced operations.

And I want to give credit where it is due. In the video, I shouted out my friend Bob Price and the team at Price Cold Storage, because they were generous with their time and genuinely excited to share what they do. That attitude is very Yakima. People work hard here, and they are proud of it.

If you want more tours and “real life Yakima” context

I share these local deep dives because they help you understand the day to day reality behind the headlines. If you like this kind of content, check out the channel. And if you want more written guides about neighborhoods, cost of living, and what it is like to live here season by season, you can explore other posts.

Conclusion, why this apple packing tour is really a story about Yakima’s future

At face value, this was a fun, noisy tour through an apple packing house. But zoom out and it is a snapshot of what Yakima, Washington is becoming. We are still an agriculture leader, but now we are also leaning hard into automation, data, and innovation. The arrival of FIRA and the growth of ag tech are signals that the Valley is positioning itself as a place where agriculture and technology meet.

Bottom line, if you are considering a move, Yakima is worth a serious look, not just for the sunshine and the views, but for the economic momentum, the community, and the real career pathways growing here.

If you want to keep learning about Yakima, neighborhoods, and what life is like on the ground, make sure you visit https://heritageyakima.com/blog for more local posts.

Full Video Transcript

…transcript…

I can't wait to show you what's inside. Come with me. I want to let you in on something huge that's happening in the Yakama Valley. It hasn't happened yet, but it's coming soon. Most people think of Yaka as just a farming community, but there's something happening here that most people don't know anything about. There's a shift happening that now some people are calling the Silicon Valley of a tech. I know it's a little bit noisy in here, but this is really where it all begins. These giant bins are filled with apples that have been picked from the orchard. They're loaded onto this giant belt over here, submerged into water. The apples come out and they come onto this conveyor belt. This is really the beginning of the cleaning and sorting of the apples. They're going to land in this big bath of water. come through. Get another rinse here. Come onto the conveyor belt. We have one person here who's doing initial sorting kind of looking for some bad apples. And then the cleaning process continues down here. Come look. I know I'm totally geeking out here and it's really loud, but it gives me so much pride to know that our community is feeding the world with apples. I just think it's really incredible. I am over the moon to share with you what it's really like inside of a packing house cuz I'm so proud that we are the world's largest growers of apples. Over here, we're watching a large bin of apples that is dumping into these trays that is then going to go underneath into this conveyor belt. Come over here. The apples are going to drop into these individual trays. You can see they're like held. It's going through this scanner right here that is going to test each individual apples. Tells it if it's the grade of the apple. Does it have any bugs in the apple? the condition of the skin, like 10, 000 little details. Once it goes through that scanner, it drops and sorts again. Come look. So, we came through, we scanned all that fruit. We're coming along here. We're labeling the good guys. They're coming down this conveyor belt. And this is where the fruit that is going to be boxed that will go into a grocery store and so forth. That'll continue on the conveyor belt. And then the rest of the food is going to drop for different sorting. Right. Yes, correct. >> I want to show you what is really magnificent about this. As it's coming off after being scanned and dropped into these different trays, you'll see over here on the left hand side that those are larger apples. And then on this right hand side, there's smaller apples. Then there's apples over here that are bigger, different color. And then teeny tiny apples all the way on the end here. All that's happening electronically with the technology from scanning and dropping the apples into these individual packing lines. So you can see over here, this is where the trays are sorted. So they're different size to cups of fruit depending on the size of the fruit. Again, it's all about making sure it doesn't get bruised and it shipped easily across the world. I wanted to show you to help you understand a packing warehouse. So, you're going to see multiple brands in here and different varieties of apples. So, here's a packaging for Cosmic Crisp and then we have some for Granny Smith and then my favorite Honey Chris down the aisle here. So, I'm going to take you over now to show you what happened with the boxes. So the boxes come in, they're depending on the brand and the variety and they're flat. Then they're going to run through these machines that make them into actual boxes. That's not done by manual. It is done by a machine. Once it comes through here, drops down onto a lower uh level conveyor belt, and then the trays that you saw earlier are going to be dropped into that box. It's going to run through another machine that's going to close it up, pack it, and wrap it and get it ready to ship. And our technology allows them to track every single piece of fruit in every single box. The condition of the fruit, where it was grown, what box it's going to go into, where it's going to be shipped to. It's an incredible process in the technology and science behind it. State of the art. Check this out. This is the machine that closes the box and takes it. The machine right before this puts carton on the top so it protects the fruit before the sides go down and the TIG comes across. I also want you to notice how they're all different sizes. You have this kind of box. You have this reineer box. You're going to see a black plastic tray. Those tray ones are filled with um apples that are in bags. So those are the bags of apples you might see at Walmart or Costco or large fruit distribution. So they're packed for large fruit sales as opposed to individual apple sales. Okay, just to recap, dump the apples in, goes through, scans, sorts, labels, apples drop down, goes into their specific trays, gets packed into trays, goes down the conveyor belt, comes around. It's either going to go into bags or it's going to go into those trays to lay the apples down in. Runs through the box gets labeled. It's going to go down here and down onto the pallet for shipping. So, we'll go there next. It's really cold in here. So, the fruit has just been packed. It's coming back into here for storage. I don't know the temp in here, but this room is really cold. And the whole idea, of course, is to keep the fruit as fresh as possible. When we came to the end of the line for the packing, all the boxes and those black trays went through the door. We're coming down this large conveyor belt. And this is really one of the next to final steps because now we're going to load all those boxes onto pallets to prepare them to ship out. Again, the technology that's being used here is able to sort what box specific box, where it's going to be shipped to, and what's included in that box. We're up in the glass house, or you might call it ground control. But this is where all the computer systems are watching every single apple that is on this conveyor belt, scanning it, checking it for bruises, condition, quality of color, you name it. They're checking each individual apple, and their screen is telling them the condition of that apple, which is then dropping into a program. So when we were walking down below, you were watching the apples drop down and that was a sorting of the grade of the apple if it was damaged and so forth. Was it going to be apple juice or is it going to be on the shelf at your favorite grocery store? I hope you can appreciate the level of care that is taken with the fruit as well. You saw how it was carefully dumped into the wash basin. The apples float in water. They get a bath. They come around. they get sorted just to be sure you have the best and highest quality of fruit. So why are we at a fruit packing warehouse? I wanted to share with you the big news, the big surprise. A organization called FRA, F I R A. It is the world's largest gathering in North America for automation in agriculture. This industry has changed incredibly. Back then it was all done by hand. You would literally see thousands of people lined up in these warehouses sorting the fruit by hand, putting it into the boxes by hand, folding the boxes by hand, strapping, taping, labeling. All of this was done by hand. The organization for Farah to come here is going to open up the world to the technology that is coming into labor that is required and technology that is demanded for today's growers. Here are three reasons why getting the fear of conference is so important to the Yakimo Valley. One, technology in the future has changed and we want to be on the forefront of that change. We want to bring in new innovation, new ideas because with that too, great jobs. These are excellent paying jobs. They require education and specialized training. And we will be a leader in the industry. This isn't just about apples or cherries or pears, but it's hops and wine grapes, potato harvest, mint, you name it. Being the innovator for a in Washington state is critical to our economic success. You've heard about drones. Obviously, they're being used for multiple things. There's AIdriven field forecasting where AI including these drones are gathering information to really tell us how much fruit is going to be yield from each tree. If you can imagine back in the day, apple trees or any sort of tree fruit, they just sort of grew naturally and they were pruned. They came up. You had to draw it when you're in elementary school. Well, now those trees, I did a video on this. They don't look the same because now they're trellised. They're being grown on vines and all of that is honestly in preparation for robots. It's robots that will be picking the fruit in my lifetime for sure running through the orchards because one, they don't have a labor cost. They can pick 247 and the uh machine will be able to identify if the particular piece of fruit, the ripe apple is ready to be picked at that time. It's pretty incredible what's really coming down the pike in terms of a innovation and what's going to happen. I truly hope you enjoyed this tour of Price Gold Storage. There's several packing houses here across the valley. They're all state-of-the-art and they are amazing. I know I totally geeked out, but I really feel like it's so important for everyone in our valley to understand the strength of our local economy. Our valley is leading the way when it comes to Agg and A tech. and I want to bring you along and show you all the incredible things happening across the valley. I want to give a big shout out to my dear friend Bob Price and all the incredible team here at Price Cold Storage. They've been amazing and they were so excited to share what they've got going on. Uh what an incredible group. You know, they employ a large group of people across the valley. Truckers, it's an incredible state-of-the-art facility and I just feel so fortunate. So, thank you so much, Bob Price and the team here at Price Cold Storage.