Cherry Problems

Cherry Problem. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

The cherry season is well underway and according to James Michael, promotions director for Northwest Cherries, for the most part it has been a good harvest but there has been some challenges.

MICHAEL: Like anything in agriculture it’s a little bit of everything all at once but we’re still seeing some good returns and some good sell through and we’re also seeing some challenges. We’re seeing some growers facing lack of market or packing opportunity. Overall cherries have been the number one advertised item for almost a month.

There were some questions early on about what kind of damage the spring and early summer rains caused but it seems the crop has fared very well.

MICHAEL: Overall we’re getting into some of our best cherries of the year. Our size is improving overall as a total crop. We’re getting big, dark, juicy cherries and we still have a month to go on our season. We’re excited for this period to come and hopefully the market will stabilize quickly for the growers that are really feeling a pinch.

There have been reports of some growers sending pickers home and abandoning their orchards due to a lack of market.

MICHAEL: It’s hard to say especially when you have a grower saying well there’s no market for your cherries and you have another grower saying well I got okay returns, I don’t think this will be a year anyone has great returns. It’s just been too much of a challenge, really from day one. We had rain from the beginning and we’ve had weather events throughout the season.

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