Thurlby: Cherry Crop Looks Good, Lots Of Potential For Northwest Growers

The cherry harvest is underway across the Inland Northwest, which means we should start seeing some of that sweet fruit in our local grocery stores in the coming weeks.  The anticipation is 23 million boxes will be harvested this year, which is slightly below the 2017 crop of 27 million boxes.  B.J. Thurlby, President of Northwest Cherry Growers says the region enjoyed optimal growing weather in April and May, leading to beautiful fruit.  He added northwest cherry growers feel they have a great opportunity this year.

“Especially with California being very short, I’ve made a lot of market visits here in the last two to three weeks, and I’m just not seeing very many California cherries, no matter where I travel to.”

Thurlby said local growers are in a good position, not only with good looking fruit coming off the trees, but good weather that looks to hold for the foreseeable future.  He added while this year’s crop may be slightly smaller than last year, there’s no reason for concern.

“Cherries are not an alternate bearing fruit, they do tend to if you look at our shipments when you have a big season, it almost in variably, the overall crop next year goes down, so you get that year to year up and down, and this is one of those down years.  But still, 23 million boxes, is still a big crop.”

If you have a story idea for the Washington Ag Network, call (509) 547-1618, or e-mail gvaagen@cherrycreekradio.com