California’s loss was Washington’s gain in last year’s cherry market.
Washington shipped 25.3 million boxes of cherries in 2018, about 1 million fewer than the previous season, according to James Michael, vice president of marketing for North America for the Washington State Fruit Commission, Yakima. BB #:162666
But since California’s crop was less than half the previous year, Washington shippers saw a season start with plenty of demand.
“In Washington, 2018 was a good year,” said Brianna Shales, communications manager for Stemilt Growers, LLC, Wenatchee, WA BB #:113654. “California was short so that brought pent up demand worldwide in May. Quality was phenomenal. We had less fruit but really good quality. Consumers and retailers were very happy. Late season was very good in August. Cherries are so volatile because of the weather.”
“California had a disaster, so it was hard for retailers to get momentum (for Washington’s season),” said Mac Riggan, marketing director for Chelan Fresh Marketing, Chelan, WA BB #:342363.
“Our marketing window was good,” he said. “The fruit was big, and it traveled well, ate like candy. We had a nice long market and retailers did really well.”
The 2018 season started a little earlier than the previous year, right as the calendar turned to June, according to the commission. It reported that northwest cherry grower-shippers shipped 146,000 boxes the first week of June and eventually averaged 500,000 per day for 45 straight days.
In June, they shipped a record 10.7 million boxes, which helped drive promotions for July 4th at retail, Michael said. One of the things cherry growers most desire is a steady season from early June to as late in the summer as they can still grow fruit. To achieve that, many growers are moving away from the venerable bing variety.
“The whole industry is replanting bings,” Shales said. “It’s the skeena for us. We’re looking for varieties for the right season. Bing has had issues, but other varieties are showing higher quality.”
Mike Preacher, director of marketing and customer relations for Domex Superfresh Growers, LLC, Yakima, WA, BB #:113721 also said many growers are making variety changes that expand the season, stay away from a strong peak volume and expand the edges of the season. “We can anticipate a continuation in shifting of varieties, a de-emphasis of bings to others such as coral champagne,” he said.
Riggan said he sees an easy parallel to the apple industry. “The bing is like the red delicious,” he said. “It’s not dead, but it’s going away.” Riggan said many growers are turning more to Canadian varieties because they tend to be bigger and last later into the season.
This is an excerpt from the most recent Produce Blueprints quarterly journal. Click here to read the full version.
