More than 50mm of rain has fallen on cherry growing areas from Stockton to Marysville, in the US state of California, causing significant damage to crops there.
Coming midway through harvesting the rains will have a significant bearing on how the remainder of the season plays out.
California Cherry Advisory Board executive manager Jim Culbertson told the Capital Press the board was assessing the damage.
“It doesn’t look good,” he said on 6 June. “We may be done in a lot of fields.”
According to the Capital Press, there is concern now that warm weather following the rain may cause fruit to split and further damage the crop.
Marketers were seeing if they could get high enough prices to justify picking the remaining crop, said Mr Culbertson.
As of 5 June, California had shipped 4.5m cartons of cherries, slightly more than half the 8.5m cartons estimated for the season.
Mr Culbertson said exports had been performing well with just over 700,000 cartons shipped to Japan so far this season. Demand has also been high in China. The rain, however, may have put an end to exports to Asia, he said. “We can’t ship long distance with less quality. We’ll have to sell it close.”
Domestic sales may also suffer, as cherry production in the Northwest this season will likely be delayed by around two weeks, which may cause a gap in supply.
Northwest Cherry Growers president BJ Thurlby told the newspaper retailers would stock shelves with other items if cherries were not available. Winning back shelf space was a difficult task, he added.
He was also concerned consumers may purchase fewer cherries if they have a bad eating experience due to rain damaged fruit.
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