NW Cherry Harvest Update Pt 1
With today's Fruit Grower Report, I'm Bob Larson. It's not quite the numbers they were anticipating, but this year's harvest is moving along nicely for Northwest Cherry growers.
Northwest Cherry Grower's president BJ Thurlby says while production may be down a bit, the cherries themselves are looking pretty good ...
THURLBY ... "It's actually been a good year for quality. I've been really happy."
Thurlby says it's not realistic to expect perfection ...
THURLBY ... "You know, this is the cherry business and one thing we know for sure is that nothing ever goes as planned and no season ever seems to be the same, so what happened last year probably isn't going to happen this year."
This season, Thurlby says, began with some uncertainty ...
THURLBY ... "So, we dodged a bit of a bullet. California had a big crop and then had a bunch of rain. You know, then our worries were that they would end up putting a lot of rained-on fruit in the market. And, they did a little bit, but not to the point where, I think, it didn't move through the system fast enough so we were lucky that the California crop that was out there, you know, they were able to pick, ended up getting through the system without too much pain and agony."
And, once Northwest growers started picking ...
THURLBY ... "That worked out pretty well for us. You know, the month of June actually went very well and we spent most of June just kind of pounding the domestic market a little bit harder than the foreign market to get the shelves built up. And, so we rolled into July with a lot of momentum, which is really important to the cherry business every year in terms of keeping the ball moving forward."
Listen tomorrow for more on this year's Northwest Cherry Crop that's on store shelves now.
