NW Cherry Update Part 2.

BJ Thurlby is optimistic about this year's cherry crop even though there is a long road ahead for producers here in the northwest. Unfortunately, Thurlby says that cherry producers in California have not had a good year.

THURLBY: Our brethren in California are having a tough time of it. The cherry deal down there is slow to get going. They've shipped about 100-thousand boxes so far but they just don't have much fruit on the trees in the early district and it sounds like the late district is coming in light too. A normal year in California would be 8-million boxes. This year they're talking about 3 to 4-million boxes

And Thurlby says that is a double edged sword.

THURLBY: It's a sad thing for the California growers but it's a win I think for the northwest growers and certainly the growers on the early end of the deal where they're going to be picking in June, I think that's great. The other thing is since the beginning of the year it's been actually fairly warm, our degree days are ahead in most districts by normal and that means that we can expect an earlier harvest.

He says it's not quite as warm as it was this time last year.

THURLBY: But it's very close and that means we're going to have a lot of cherries that we'll be able to get our for the 4th of July and that is always a big hit for the growers and a big hit for the consumers and a big hit for the retailers that we can get that fruit loaded into those stores for that 4th of July holiday which is the number one produce sales holiday of the year.

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