NW Cherries are Healthy Pt 2
With today’s Fruit Grower Report, I’m Bob Larson. Northwest cherries will start coming off the trees in a few weeks and this year’s marketing campaign will be centered around how cherries fit your healthy, high-tech lifestyle.
Northwest Cherry Growers President BJ Thurlby says the focus comes from a change in HOW more consumers are finding and buying their groceries …
THURLBY … “Last year in June, which is right on top of our cherry season, the U.S. alone increased to like $7.3-billion worth of online grocery sales from grocery stores. So, that’s outside of the existing Amazon-type shopping mediums that people go to.”
That trend, Thurlby says is growing …
THURLBY … “It’s just boomed and most of the prognosticators out there, you know, you look at these tech firms that do consumer research, they really believe that one of the trends that is going to stick around once the pandemic is over is going to be the online grocery shopping.”
This year’s campaign, Thurlby says will be the biggest ever …
THURLBY … “It really is, and we talk to the growers all winter about this pandemic is a real opportunity for us to kind of tell the health story even louder than we’ve ever told it before.”
Thurlby says it just makes sense …
THURLBY … “This is an opportunity that we want to try to be part of versus just kind of play it as a normal year. So, the grower are geared up and we’re ready to hit the market with one of the largest campaigns, certainly the health push that we’re going to be running is the largest that we’ve ever done.”
Thurlby says harvest should start the first week of June.
