More On Soft Fruit

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

The soft fruit season was not a record setter by any means but BJ Thurlby with the Washington State Fruit Commission says the export market was really good.

THURLBY: We really had nice pickup this year on our soft fruit and you know just like the apple business this year a lot of little production regions in the United States this summer were affected by adverse weather coming into the summer that produce peaches, nectarines and just that little shift down of what we think is about a 12% decrease and overall longing from the previous year kind of put us in a pretty good position I think as an industry to have a broader reach and a broader opportunity with our peach and nectarine and apricot programs this year.

It was a tough year with the weather playing a key role here in the northwest like it did across the rest of the country.

THURLBY: Every grower probably has a different story but I think that overall you would call it a success and I think most of our soft fruit growers in the state are going to be farming again next year. For me, that’s a very big positive. That’s something that I look at and think that’s what we’re all working forward to and what the growers are in business to do is to keep farming. So very positive.

The Washington tree fruit industry is meeting this week beginning today in Yakima at the annual Hort Convention and Expo where they will be sure and discuss the high and low points of this last season.

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