Soft Fruit

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

The soft fruit harvest is moving along nicely according to Washington State Fruit Commission’s BJ Thurlby.

THURLBY: The soft fruit crop is running 7 to 10 days ahead depending on the location of the orchard and this is one of those crops I shudder to use the word “vintage” but it really is a - this is one of the best eating crops I have seen on peaches and nectarines in the last 5 years.

And while the weather was a detriment to the cherry crop, Thurlby says it’s something soft fruit benefitted from.

THURLBY: This warm weather that didn’t necessarily agree with cherries all the way through seems to really agree with soft fruit and we’re seeing some of the most flavorful fruit and it’s been indicative of fruit from all over the country. California fruit has actually eaten well this year which I think has led up to a positive run for us out there in the marketplace because they start two months before we do.

He says there has been great support from their retail partners and good support from Canada as well.

THURLBY: We’ve shipped about - almost a million boxes on soft fruit and we probably have about another million to go so we’re just about at the halfway point.

Washington is not as major a producer of soft fruit as other locations and is down the list a ways when it comes to peaches but due to the fact there are not a lot of nectarines produced in the U.S. the state is in the top 3 or so when it comes to nectarines.

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