Cherry Pricing Pt 2
From the Ag Information Network, this is today’s Fruit Grower Report. Last year’s cherry crop was not huge but was outstanding from both a quality and a pricing perspective.
BJ Thurlby, president of the Northwest Cherry Growers, says the timing of California’s cherries and our cherries was excellent and kept them in front of consumers longer …
THURLBY … “Having California’s help to get those early displays up for Memorial Day and then they just stayed up. So, I mean, we were walking into produce departments around the country in late July and early August and cherries were still up front in the stores. And that speaks well to the quality of the fruit we had and to the fact that the cherry category is such a popular category with consumers and retailers.”
From the higher prices the previous couple of years, Thurlby says last year had to be better …
THURLBY … “And then in ’23, some of that pricing strategy kind of carried over at some key retailers and so we saw a lot of $6.99 ads, a lot of $7.99 ads.”
And fortunately, Thurlby says we really bounced back …
THURLBY … “At least price the fruit relative to A, a margin that you’re working off of that’s relative to our FOB price. You know, and FOB prices were definitely a little higher this year, which is a good thing, but there’s still, and I keep saying this to our growers, there’s a lot of meat left on the bone at that $3.99 and $4.99 price point, which hopefully allows consumers to be happy, but also keeps the growers in business.”
Thurlby says so far, from the growers he’s talked with, things really look promising for the upcoming crop … but adds, it’s still early.
