Red Raspberries 2020 Pt 1
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. Washington state’s red raspberry crop for 2020 is in the barn, so to speak, and word is growers brought in a good-looking, fairly hefty crop.
Henry Bierlink, Executive Director of the Washington Red Raspberry Commission, says it’s still a bit early to know for sure, but most of what he’s hearing sounds positive …
BIERLINK … “I’m collecting the data. Our data, production data, is due the end of September so I just have a sense of what’s going on out there. I don’t have official numbers yet.”
But, if he were to make an educated guess, Bierlink says …
BIERLINK … “I’m assuming it’s a pretty normal crop. It will probably be in that, close to 70-million pounds for the state of Washington, which we’ve been up and above and below that for the last several years. I’m thinking we’ll be between 68 and 70-million, you know, somewhere in that range.”
And, that’s in spite of, Bierlink says, a pretty wet start to the harvest …
BIERLINK … “It was a tough start for the year. In late June, early July, we had a fair amount of rain so quality was really a challenge trying to get the right kind of fruit and packing the right kind of pack. When the fruit is some of the best fruit, you know, right around the early part of the year so, you know, after a week or two we kind of shrugged the mold issues and so forth and then it was a pretty normal year.”
Tune in tomorrow for more on Washington raspberries and some of the challenges brought by the pandemic.
