Soft Fruit Update
Soft Fruit Update. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report.
The tree fruit season is still dealing with the heat and labor issues but according to BJ Thurlby, President of the Washington State Fruit Commission, soft fruit is starting to see some volume early.
THURLBY: The cot deal is almost completely finished. There's a few kind of unique varieties that people have planted that are later and those are just starting to come off now but the volume is less than 1% of the total fruit volume.
He says peaches and nectarines are beginning to be harvested.
THURLBY: Volume is starting to crank up. We've set up programs regionally with a lot of the key retailers west of the Mississippi and a few on the other side as well but we're seeing Washington peaches show up and Washington nectarines show up in several different states and by all accounts talking to our sales organizations that the demand is stronger than supply right now. Let's hope that keeps up.
And of course the cherry season is still moving but slowly winding down.
THURLBY: Just coming to 19-million boxes and our estimate has been pretty much spot on all year. The fruit has been really nice and from that standpoint it's helped us a lot. It's given consumers an excuse to buy again and again and now another, I'm guessing another two weeks of cherry shipping and probably another five to six hundred thousand boxes and this thing will be done.
What that means is if you want to enjoy cherries you'd better be making a trip to the store soon. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network of the West.
