The US Northwest cherry industry shipped a record crop of nearly 23m cartons (9.1 kg equivalents) last year. Expectations had been for similar production for the new season but thanks to a mid-spring frost and subsequent poor pollinating conditions, the 2013 Northwest cherry deal is not shaping up to be another record-setter after all.
“The early growing districts in the south around the Tri-Cities area were hit pretty hard by the frost in early April,” says Marc Spears of Chelan Fresh Marketing. “There had been talk about another 23m carton crop his year but that clearly is not going to be the case.”
“The fruit set in the southern districts is, at best, a mixed bag this year,” agrees Roger Pepperl of Stemilt Growers. “In addition to the April frost, we had cold weather immediately thereafter that kept bee activity to a minimum so many orchards had spotty pollination. With California’s season now looking to wind down early this year, there could easily be a (market) gap in cherry availability for the first few weeks of June.”
Despite this season's disappointing weather conditions damaging yields, there is consensus within the industry that production norms are on the up.
“My guess is that the industry will come up with at least 18-20m cartons as we still don’t have a handle on how much late season fruit is out there,” said Randy Eckert of Yakima Fresh, who alsonoted that the Northwest cherry industry, encouraged by profits from recent seasons, continues to plant new acreage.
“The nurseries continue to be sold out and every year we’re seeing more cherry orchards coming into bearing. Sooner or later, a cherry crop of 22-25m cartons will be considered small by the industry.”
“(20-25m cartons) should be the industry ‘norm’ for the future,” agreed Howard Nager of Domex Super Fresh Growers. “The good thing about this coming season is that we’re seeing large sized and good quality fruit throughout all the growing districts.”
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