Retail Pricing An Issue For Northwest Cherry Growers In 2025

On October 9th Northwest Cherries announced the final numbers of the 2025 season, a crop that ended up being larger than estimated.  Over 23.6 million boxes of cherries were harvested and shipped during the season which started in early June.

While the size of the crop rebounded nicely, and the quality was “outstanding” Karley Lange, Director of Domestic Promotions at Northwest Cherries, noted there were a few issues growers had to address this year; labor and retail pricing.

"There was a lot of struggles getting retail pricing down in the earlier timeframe where we needed that retail to drop to get the fruit moving," Lange said.  "That created a lot of issues from about the third week of June through the third week of July, we saw that pricing issue.  And so, the return to the growers coming back off of that time period is really rough right now.  The growers are really struggling.”

Lange’s message to consumers when it comes to the issue of retail pricing.

“The pricing standpoint at retail needs to reflect what the retailers are paying for that fruit so that the money goes back to the grower too," she said.  "I mean, the growers can't keep continuing to have years like this and stick around and actually continue to farm the fruit. So the biggest thing is understanding why if retail price is slightly higher, still to purchase that fruit because you're supporting the farmer at the end of the day.”

Lange added retail pricing has been an issue for cherry growers over the past four seasons.

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