080907 Cherry Season Wrap Part 1

Cherries Season Wrap Pt 1. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. The cherry season is in its last stages, perhaps another week or so and according to BJ Thurlby, President of the Northwest Cherry Growers it looks like a pretty good ending. THURLBY: Well we think that this crop is going to come out right about the same size as last year. It's going to be in that 14.5 to 14.7 million box range. Overall it's been what I would rate as a very good season. I mean we have had good luck on labor; we've had good luck on weather and overall our growers have produced a product that is exactly what we say it is  the diamond of fruit. He says that even though it was a good growing season it wasn't a perfect season. THURLBY: That doesn't mean that there wasn't a glitch here and there, every season has them; every season plays out differently. This year we actually had a week or so where we were a little bit early on our Rainier cherries, I mean the Rainier's came off a little bit quicker than everybody expected and they came off at a time that was right at the very peak of our Bing harvest. The quality of this year's fruit was exceptional but Thurlby think the growers would like to have had one wish granted. THURLBY: I think most of the growers will probably say I wish I had three or more tons to the acre. That's my guess and that's a good thing that they're saying that. Tomorrow we talk about the Rainer crop and high prices. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.