Sweet Cherries Ready for Summer BBQs

If you're looking for cherries for your upcoming 4th of July picnic, the USDA has some good news for you.  Lance Honig with NASS says there will be enough cherries to enjoy this summer.  However,  "We're expected our sweet cherry crop to be a little bit down from last year, actually, 320,000 tons or 26% below what was produced last year, but, last year was a really big crop."

He added most sweet cherry production takes place out here in the west, and for the most part it looks like a good crop.

"The sweet cherries Washington is really the big leader in production. There, we are seeing a reduction in the overall production crop from last year. Oregon is another key producer there. Weather during pollination was not ideal this season and that's what kind of pushing some of that production expectation down from last year."

Honig said producers here in the Northwest are concerned about the extent of their fruit crop and early varieties throughout the harvest.  Meanwhile, California cherry growers were impacted by a warm winter, followed by damaging February frost, and heavy March rains.

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