12/22/08 How the Cherry Industry Shapes Up

How The Cherry Industry Shapes Up. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Cherries have always been a treat for me. I love just about any kind and with the fresh cherry season being as short as it is, it is something I look forward to. NE Cherry Growers, BJ Thurlby says they are adjusting their marketing. THURLBY: If you know our marketing campaigns of recent years we've been the "Diamond of Fruit." We're still the "Diamond of Fruit" but with the current economy and things shifting back and forth as it has I'm a believer that we need to switch that a little bit and now we're talking about the "Affordable Luxury." Cherries are the affordable luxury. So that will be a piece of our puzzle as we move forward from a marketing standpoint. Thurlby says the U.S. is the second largest producer of sweet cherries behind Turkey but what he finds surprising is the largest importer. THURLBY: You would think that the UK which doesn't produce a lot of cherries is probably importing a lot of cherries and I would think that a country like maybe Taiwan which grows no cherries whatsoever and imports everything would be the number one importer; the number one importer of sweet cherries is Russia. I didn't see it coming either. With that in mind he says there are some questions that producers should be asking themselves. THURLBY: Is there are piece of that business that we need to get to be a part of. As of today, last year we had record shipments to Russia. We shipped a whole 20-thousand boxes to Russia which is not a lot obviously and none of it went into Moscow or St. Petersburg which are the two large markets there. More tomorrow. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.