Cherry Outlook Pt 1
From the Ag Information Network, I’m Bob Larson with today’s Fruit Grower Report. From last year’s heat dome to this colder and wetter spring, weather challenges have kept farmers on their toes.
Northwest Cherry Growers president BJ Thurlby says the April snow and freezing temps may not have hit the cherries as bad as once feared, but the impact will be felt…
THURLBY … “You know, any time we start a season with a crop where we’re thinking its 14 or 15 million boxes, you know, we’d like to be thinking its 23 or 24 million. Because we have demand that we’ve built for that particular level of crop volume and we’re not going to probably get there this year.”
But, Thurlby says it’s not unprecedented …
THURLBY … “From that side it’s disappointing because growers always like to get that extra tonnage, but overall, with the crop it’s still a lot of cherries. And, you can go back 15 years and we had lots of crops in the 14 million box
range so this isn’t totally unheard of.”
Bottom line, Thurlby says you WILL be able to find your delicious cherries this year…
THURLBY … “We’re going to have lots of cherries available for the U.S. and domestic market and there’s, I’m guessing, with the size profile we’re expecting, which is large, firm fruit, we should also have probably 30% of our fruit go offshore as well. So, we think we’re going to have a good demand structure coming from both foreign and domestic markets this year.”
Tune in tomorrow for more on the outlook for Northwest Cherries … and when we might see them on store shelves.
