Cherry Crop Outlook

Last week we started a conversations with NW Cherries BJ Thurlby regarding the new crop estimate of 20-million boxes for 2014. He says that it is a medium sized crop that may pick out a bit larger and that every cherry will need to be accounted for this year.

THURLBY: The poor guys in California have basically lost their crop this year and the northwest growers are going to be relied upon to fill that void here this summer so from that standpoint I think if you are a grower that's probably a positive thing. We're going to have to work hard in June to get shelf space built up for our fruit. We're going to have to work hard in June to get some displays set up that are big enough for the Fourth of July and then I think we can slingshot right out of that into what I hope will be a really nice smooth July for us.

And with a tighter that usual supply what might that mean for the export market that continues to grow?

THURLBY: Every year we try to shoot for 30% of our product being exported. We believe that's a real heathy number for us and 70% domestic out there. But the demand is going to be there and the fact that so many people around the world are looking at cherries to be part of their profitability structure for their organization when it comes to retail or importers and they just haven't been able to get any cherries yet just means that the demand curve is going to be really strong from the get go. We're running programs in 17 countries and from a promotional standpoint we want to set programs up that are going to drive more sales and continue to move fruit.

That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.