2018 Season A Good One For Northwest Cherry Growers

While not a record breaker, the 2018 cherry season turned out to be very good for Northwest growers.  Northwest Cherry Growers reported Thursday that  25.3 million 20-pound boxes were harvested this year.  While down from 2017’s record crop, this year’s figure was well ahead of the estimate of 23.2 million boxes for this season.

The year started off with a strong harvest underway by June 1^st, and an average shipping rate of 357-thousand boxes per day for the entire month.  Organic cherry production saw a 26% year over year increase in the Northwest, making up 3% of the total crop.  NWCG said  local producers were helped by a lackluster California crop, and extremely high demand.

On the down side, NWCG said they lost market share in China thanks to the ongoing trade war.  In 2017 3.2 million boxes of cherries were shipped to China, this year, only 1.6 million boxes were sent.

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