Harvesting Cherries

Harvesting Cherries. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

It seems the weather has decided to cooperate for at least a few days and now that the rain has moved on BJ Thurlby, President of NW Cherries says producers are really going to be moving to get the cherries picked. But it won’t be done in just a few weeks.

THURLBY: We’re going to have volume on cherries literally through the middle of August. And July’s going to be our big month. Our thinking is we’re going to ship probably 4.5 million boxes here between the beginning of the season and the end of June. Then we think July is going to have a lot of fruit and we’re thinking somewhere in the range of 12 million boxes and the world has promotions lined up and let’s hope that the cherries that are out there on the shelves are the kinds of cherries that consumers buy and want to come back and buy again.

Labor issues have been slow to manifest due to the rain but will be something producers will be getting into. Thurlby says most producers now are looking for additional help. But good news is that prices seem to be holding.

THURLBY: Retail pricing is something we talk about and we’re seeing national averages right now at about $3.39 on red cherries and through the 4th I think we’ll see some hot ads somewhere between $2 and $3. Overall the pricing for the growers just seems to have firmed up a little bit this week with demand but you hear lots of different stuff so it doens’t really pay to throw a price out there because all the different packer/shippers have different strategies.

One thing is certain...this years cherries are sweet and juicy and if Mother Nature will cooperate, this just might be close to a record year for cherry producers here in the northwest.

That’s today’s Fruit Grower Report. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.