08/10/07 Cherry Wrap Part 2

Cherry Season Wrap Part 2. I'm Greg Martin with today's Fruit Grower Report. The cherry harvest is about finished and one of the things that I noticed in enjoying some of Washington's finest cherries was the incredible size of the fruit. Northwest Cherries', BJ Thurlby says it was an outstanding year for size. THURLBY: 9 ½ row and larger which is the benchmark which we dream to grow as many cherries in that 9 ½ row area if we could and it's hard to do. I mean you really have to use every horticulture technique at your disposal. This year 18% of the crop was 9 ½ row and larger which we've never been over 10% of the crop being that big. Cherry prices remained fairly good but at the retail level, Rainier cherries were on the high side and Thurlby says it's something that needs attention. THURLBY: The Rainier thing is something that as an industry we're really going to have to sit down and address because coming into our peak which came on again three or four days, maybe a week earlier in a lot of orchards than we expected  Rainier's' were on the shelves at $5.99 a pound and at $5.99 a pound because of our pricing strategies here within the industry and that's a lot of money to pay for a cherry. To get somebody to try a new product at some point we're going to have to probably be in that 3.59 to 3.69 range. Rainier cherries make up about 8 % of the cherries harvested in the state and that is a factor in the higher prices as well. Thurlby says that there are more Rainier's getting ready to come into play very soon. THURLBY: There's more coming on. I personally have knowledge of several large blocks of Rainier's that have been planted in the last two or three years so there's going to be more Rainier's on the market. That's today's Fruit Grower Report. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.