More normal harvest timing for California cherries is setting the stage for a successful season, cherry shippers say.
“In terms of volume, the industry is still estimating it to be in the 8 [million-] to 9 million-box range, just slightly down from last season,” said Chris Kurylo, vice president of strategic business development and analysis for Oppy. “However, what’s promising is that we anticipate a more regular window, starting from the end of April compared to closer to the end of May last year. This season, we’re expecting better sizing and overall quality of fruit.”
Oppy expects its harvest of California cherries to start at the tail end of April with its southern grower-partners and then extend through to the midpoint of June as Oppy shifts into its northern orchards around the Lodi area, Kurylo said.
Other shippers agreed the outlook for California cherries is positive.
“Based on bloom patterns from early sites, Stemilt’s season will start towards the end of April,” said Brianna Shales, marketing director of Stemilt Growers, Wenatchee, Wash. “This will be much earlier in contrast to last year’s record late start. As we start to increase in volume slowly through early May, we will build into promotable volumes leading into Memorial Day and through early June.”
Keith Wilson, owner of King Fresh Produce LLC, Kingsburg, Calif., said the marketer expects to begin harvest of California cherries about May 1.
“Early indications appear that the California cherry crop will yield good volume,” Wilson said, though he noted in early April that growers still faced several weeks of spring weather before the crop is ready to harvest.
The harvest season for California cherries will start earlier than last year and closer to historical norms, said Kyle Persky, sales manager for Rivermaid Trading Co. That is welcome news since last season’s start was late and overlapped heavily with the Northwest cherry harvest, he said.
“It looks like we will have another good solid promotable crop,” Persky said.
Unlike last year, California shippers will supply substantial cherry volume in May.
“We basically missed Memorial Day promotions [last year],” he said. “[This year] we think we’re going to have a supply curve that’s going to line up well with Memorial Day promotion.”
At the same time, Rivermaid is encouraging retailers to take advantage of post-Memorial Day cherry promotions through the first week of June, he said.
