08/12/08 Trying to Sell the Cherries

Trying to Sell the Cherries. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. It was a tough year for the cherry harvest. A long cool spring has caused a significant reduction in crop size. But moving the cherries that were picked has been almost as difficult according to Gip Redman with the Oregon Cherry Growers. REDMAN: Not having some big ads and a lot of them before the 4th of July this year kind of shows you how much we rely on that movement to help us pull fruit through and really get the momentum going, it wasn't there so the market is definitely as strong as it should have been. Redman says that even with good quality fruit there are other factors at play in the market. REDMAN: Part of that is the so-called economy but I think more of it is the fact that people are realizing how much $4 a gallon gasoline affects their life as they start paying more for that commodity. And so they become a little more choosy when they get to the market. The price per pound has been a bit on the steep side like so many other groceries. REDMAN: Of course we don't think it was too much money for our precious commodity but reality is that when they see a small bag, relatively small bag of cherries costing close to $10 they're going whoa, do I really need this. And they may take it and two things need to happen. One is it had better be darn good and two they probably put the second one back. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.