New Rainier Cherry Designation

New Rainier Cherry Designation. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. Anyone who enjoys good fresh cherries knows that the Rainier cherry is sort of a Cadillac. They are big, sweet and a bit pricier than more common varieties and well worth it. BJ Thurlby says Rainier's are already held to a high standard. THURLBY: Rainiers which are already the cherries that have the highest grade standards, I mean there is a minimum brix requirement of 17, there's a minimum row size requirement – you can't pack Rainiers less than 11 row which as cherries go are the highest standards. He says there is now a new grade standard. THURLBY: The industry took it to another level last year and voted to actually put color in as a standard and so what we've don is created a premium designation which would be the highest designation you could receive on a Rainier cherry. But what it does is it requires that there is a certain percentage and every cherry has to have a little bit of red blush in order to make that grade. Rainier cherries by nature are yellow in color but producers have found that the consumer prefers to see some light red color. THURLBY: What we're trying to do is reward those growers who figure out how to grow those cherries with a little bit of that red blush and most orchards will have them because it's essentially a sunburning on the cherry but at the same time from a consumers standpoint it's viewed as a symbol of quality. Thurlby says that while that should mean a better price for the producer the consumer should not see much if any increase in price. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.