After a down crop year in 2022, Yakima, Wash.-based Sage Fruit Co. is looking forward to rebounding with a large cherry crop volume in 2023.
“This season brings with it a significant amount of growth at Sage Fruit, and in turn has built a lot of excitement for the coming season,” said Chuck Sinks, Sage Fruit’s president of sales and marketing.
The marketer’s Northwest cherry crop spans from southeastern Washington, through The Dalles and Hood River in Oregon, up through the Yakima Valley, then shifts north through Wenatchee and Chelan in Washington, up to the Canadian border, Sinks said.
Sage Fruit partnered with Chelan Fruit during the 2022 cherry season and will continue to do so in 2023, Sinks said. Chelan Fruit joins the Sage Fruit family of growers, packers and shippers to enhance the marketing, sales and distribution of their Washington-grown tree fruit, he said. Through this partnership, Sage Fruit adds a considerable volume of cherries to its manifest, Sinks said.
Chelan Fruit is a nearly 3,000-acre farming operation with its own packing and cold storage facilities and is one of Washington’s leading fruit producers, Sinks said. The additional acreage that Chelan Fruit will be contributing spans the northern growing region of Washington state, which provides Sage Fruit with greater geographical diversification, Sinks said.
Growing season
The Pacific Northwest experienced a cold but mild winter. Growers were hit by a late-season snowstorm in south-central Washington in early April, which Sinks said pushed the bloom date slightly. Temperatures remained cool through March and early April, he said.
“Our earliest districts began blooming in mid-April,” Sinks said. “Given the later bloom, the Pacific Northwest cherry season looks to be running about 10 days later this season than a typical year.”
However, the variable weather patterns are lending to good separation between districts, he said, which will allow for late-season cherries.
“Our cherry season looks to kick off in mid-June, with our first peak coming in late-June to early-July, Sinks said. “We should maintain promotable volume through mid-August.”
Sage Fruit is carrying both dark sweet and rainier cherries in 2023. The varieties of dark sweet cherries Sage Fruit packs include benton, skeena, regina, sweetheart, bing, chelan, cowiche, korida and tieton, he said.
Sage Fruit has two separate cherry packing locations, in Chelan and Wapato, Wash.
“Our teams have heavily invested in their packing line equipment to ensure only the highest-quality product is shipped to our retail and wholesale partners,” Sinks said. “Our lines are equipped with optical sorting which facilitates the elimination of both internal and external defects of the fruit.”
Organic
Sinks said conventional cherries make up most of the marketer’s volume, but organic cherries are available.
“We’ve seen a steady increase in requests for organic cherries,” Sinks said, noting that the Northwest organic cherry crop is roughly 2.5% to 3% of the total cherry crop.
“Currently, the volume industrywide does not appear to be growing, but with organic trends, it stands to reason that it will grow in the future,” he said.
Sinks said about 30% of the total organic cherry crop will be exported in 2023.
Packaging and marketing
Bags continue to be the primary pack style requested by retail partners, Sinks said, though the industry has migrated away from the standard Ziploc and are now packing into pouch bags.
“Clamshells are available but are used less frequently, and when they are, it is usually driven by merchandising needs and/or the lack of ability to use a scale as they are sold by the unit instead of per pound,” he said.
Sage Fruit offers customized, season-long marketing and sales programs to meet customers’ needs, Sinks said.
“With various pack styles, sizing and in-store POP material available, our goal is to help customers maximize their sales dollars through a tailored approach,” he said.
Visibility is the key for both in-person and online sales, Sinks said.
“Secondary displays, category size/location and ad frequency all play key roles in higher cherry sales,” he said. “One out of four Americans buy cherries each year, with 72% of purchases being impulse buys. Retailers can capitalize on that by setting up a secondary display at the front door or near the checkout lanes.”
Sinks said Sage Fruit currently has cherry-specific POP bins available to all the company’s retail and wholesale partners at no cost.
Secondary displays drive 13.6% more lift in volume, 22.4% more in dollars, he said.
“Keeping cherries in front of consumers for the duration of the season is the best way to maintain sales, whether it be in circular ads or multiple locations throughout the store,” Sinks said. “Promotions drive increased sales, while simple price drops fail to draw as much attention.”
Cross-merchandising also is important, he said.
“Cross-merchandising with other recipe and usage ideas such as oatmeal, meat marinades, sauces, jams, salsas and pies prove that cherries are an expandable category,” Sinks said.
