Cherry Weather Better Pt 1
From the Ag Information Network, this is today’s Fruit Grower Report. The weather forecast looks, at this point, to be favorable for Northwest cherry growers who’ve hoped to avoid a repeat of last year’s overlap with the California crop.
Northwest Cherry Growers President, BJ Thurlby says that’s not very likely …
THURLBY … “No, it’s not. And again, we were really praying that we wouldn’t see the overlap we saw last year. But as you know, California was delivering cherries all the way through the middle of July. So, it’s just a tough deal when the market gets like that.”
And, Thurlby says it was unlike anything he’s ever seen …
THURLBY … “I’ve been at this game for, you know, for 29-years and I have never seen California cherries own the 4th of July. I would say 50% of the grocery stores had California cherries in still on the 4th of July.”
California’s normal, Thurlby says is to be in the stores by Memorial Day …
THURBLY … “They were saying, we’ve never missed Memorial Day and we didn’t anticipate what was going to happen, coming out of Memorial Day, that a lot of retailers, when they couldn’t get cherries for Memorial Day, you what they did? They said, California doesn’t have a crop and we’re just going to pull our cherry ads and promote grapes, or strawberries, or something else.”
California cherry harvest began in mid-April, so they are on time this year. Tune in tomorrow for more the Northwest cherry crop.
