More on the 2010 Cherry Crop

More on the 2010 Cherry Crop. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Last year's cherry crop was a monster. Not only was it too large of a crop the fruit size was such that smaller fruit was undesirable so farmers had a hard time moving smaller fruit and therefore lost a lot of good revenue. BJ Thurlby with NW Cherries says this year's crop estimate is more in line. THURLBY: The assumption is that we're going to have grape size and here's why – because most of these trees aren't overly set. You know a big crop this year if you are a grower is probably going to be 6 tons per acre and there's a lot of 3 and 4 ton crops out there and what I'm seeing though is I'm seeing bigger, broader leaves. Horticulturally the growers went out his winter and pruned and it just looks like it's going to be one of those vintage crops where the fruit is big, high in sugar and knock on wood – good and firm. You are starting to see some fresh cherries out of California hitting the stores this week and Thurlby says if you like cherries this appears to be your year for good fruit. THURLBY: My field representatives from around the country and internationally are reporting nice quick sales...nice sales out of the block and overall I think the cherries that have been coming out have been pretty well received so that's positive and it's only going to get better from the beginning of their deal to the later deal and then into our deal all the way through the season. I mean the fruit just keeps getting better and if you are a consumer that's what you've got to keep in mind that you're going to have great cherries all summer long. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.