Cherry Exec Moves Up

Cherry Exec Moves Up. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Fruit Grower Report.

Oregon Cherry Growers have announced that their Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, has been promoted to Executive Vice President, General Manager and CFO. Danny Weeden has been with the grower-owned cooperative for nearly 10 years.

WEEDEN: In this new role, expanded role I’ve kind of taken on additional responsibilities over all the operational side of the business and that’s all of our manufacturing facilities and plants as well as remaining over the financial role as well.

He says between himself and their VP of Field Services, Gip Redman they work to get the harvest coordinated from both the fresh and processed side. And some years that can be a challenge.

WEEDEN: Last year the volume wasn’t there. We had a lot of rains and issues with the crop to deal with. You know Oregon cherry growers, we cover the whole gamut. We do fresh as well as processed so we cover both sides of the spectrum and so we create a lot of opportunities for growers and members so if they have a problem in one segment we can help them out in another segment. In the past couple of years where there has been some trouble with getting fruit marketed for fresh we were able to divert that fruit into some processing pools.

That allowed a return for growers where they might not have had one. Weeden has more than 30 years of experience in the food industry, managing multiple department functions including finance, sales & marketing, and operations.

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