CA and BC Help Ensure NW Cherry Grower Success

CA and BC Help Ensure NW Cherry Grower Success

Susan Allen
Susan Allen
I'm Susan Allen with the Fruit Grower Report. Our neighbors to the North and South are experiencing issues with their 2016 Cherry crops, and this could set Northwest Growers up for another incredible year. California cherry growers were hit hard with rain both in the north and southern districts resulting in heavy spitting throughout the state and a much smaller crop than anticipated. BC growers have the opposite problem. Cherries are coming on strong according to Hank Markcroft Grower Services Manager at BC Fruit. He says they are excited because the crop is coming early,

Markcroft: "We are excited because we are thinking we will have over 12 million pounds of beautiful cherries this season."

Okanagan Orchardist Neil Dendy early is an understatement.

Dendy: "It's the earliest year in my memory...And our earliest year before that was last year, so this is two record-breaking years in a row,"

But will there be pickers? Unlike their NW counterparts, BC growers rely heavily on local Canadian labor so picking before school is out can challenging for cherry growers.

California and British Columbia could set the Northwest up for another great cherry season, and marketers report being hounded by importers wanting to know when the Northwest cherries will arrive. The largest crop on record was 2014 but industry experts feel that the 2016 crop will fall far below that level and possibly not even match last years production. Fruit Net reports that more than 50 percent of the cherry crop will be harvested during the month of June, leaving far less product during July compared to recent seasons, so get them while you can, as only minimal quantities of Northwest cherries should be available by August.

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