Northwest Cherries in 2024 Pt 1

Northwest Cherries in 2024 Pt 1

Bob Larson
Bob Larson
From the Ag Information Network, this is today’s Fruit Grower Report. As the new year gets underway, Northwest cherry growers are looking forward to the next crop while putting a bow on the 2024 season.

Northwest Cherry Growers President, BJ Thurlby says it wasn’t the best year ever, but it easily beat out the past couple of years …

THURLBY … “We ended up packing 19.5 million 20-pound-equivalent boxes. So, it ended up being a pretty good-sized crop. I don’t know if you remember this when we talked about it before the season, but our estimate was literally spot-on to that. And so, we’re happy, kind of, from an estimate standpoint that we ended up with that much fruit.”

Thurlby says some regions had a rough winter, but overall …

THURLBY … “This wasn’t one of those years where we’re going to say, whoa, it was a home run, and I’d love to talk about those years, but it was still a good year overall and I think that there’s, you know, growers that are going to end up, you know, staying in business for another year or two because of last year’s, kind of where we were at.”

But, Thurlby says the fruit quality was amazing across the board …

THURLBY … “You know, last year was one of those years where you can’t really pick what your favorite variety was because, from Chelan all they way through to the very end, Staccato, the varieties were all good, all ate well, and our growers just did an amazing job of putting together a crop that consumers really responded well to.”

Listen tomorrow for what worked out well for Northwest cherries in 2024.

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