Soft Fruit Update

Soft Fruit Update. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

We have been talking a lot about the cherry harvest since it is one of the first to come along but hot on its heels comes the other soft fruit. BJ Thurlby, president of the Washington State Fruit Commission gives us an update.

THURLBY: You know we’re dead in the center of apricot harvest. It’s going qhickly. The apricot market has actually been pretty strong so far this year. We’ve been happy with it but we’re starting to hit some volume so it will be a 5 or 6 day, a week long challenge with some of these mainline varieties coming off to make sure we get it all, packed and shipped.

And he takes a look at the peach crop.

THURLBY: The first peaches I know were actually picked last week in small increments and the further we go the more peaches and nectarines will come off but you know our volume anymore is right in the middle of August so we still have a ways to go before we really crank up and get to our peak period on soft fruit.

Thurlby says he has sampled some of the first fruit and says the quality is exceptional.

THURLBY: This fruit I had was awesome and I’m just excited. I think despite the fact that it has been challenging cherry growing weather it’s been a little more conducive to peaches and nectarines so we’re excited about that crop. I think we’re going to see 2-million boxes of peaches, a million boxes of nectarines and right around 600 to 700 thousand boxes of apricots. That’s a normal kind of - I wouldn’t say that’s a large crop. The apricot crop is a little bit larger than normal this year but the peach and nectarine crop look moderate to normal.

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