Heat causes issues with local cherry crops

QUINCY - Every industry has its good news and bad news, and the good news for cherry growers is that fruit coming off the trees is of good quality.

The bad news is that blast-furnace hot weather put a lot of fruit on the market at the same time, putting downward pressure on prices.

Fruit that would've been picked last week was picked the first two weeks of July, according to Steve Castleman, senior vice president of sales for CMI, which markets fruit for growers throughout central Washington.

That means a lot of cherries on the market. A lot of cherries on the market at the same time isn't good for prices.

"The market is definitely in flux right now,"Cattleman said.

The spot market (fruit sold for immediate delivery) is weak, at least this week, he added.

According to Castleman, some retailers were still working through the fruit they purchased for the July 4 weekend a week later and, as a result, they're slow with new orders.

"Essentially what we have to do is fight through this oversupply situation," he said.

The good news is that cherry quality is pretty good. Bing cherries coming off the trees are "big, dark, full of sugar," said James Michael, vice president of marketing for the Northwest Cherry Growers and the Washington State Fruit Commission.

"The quality this year is nice," he said.

The market glut is more proof that timing is everything in agriculture, since the 2015 crop is projected to be smaller than 2014. Michael said the estimate for 2015 was about 20.5 million boxes, and rain and hail reduced that estimate by 10 to 15 percent. That compares to 23.2 million boxes in 2014.

Normally the cherry season runs from early June to mid-August.

"This year we started two and a half weeks early," Michael said.

Due to warm weather in the spring, the first shipments of fresh cherries went out May 23, Michael said.

"We'll be down to the slow trickle (of fresh fruit entering the market) by the end of July," he said.

Early demand was strong, so good that growers were "scrambling" to get fruit to market, Michael said.

Cherry season normally moves south to north, starting around Tri-Cities and Yakima, moving up through Mattawa, Royal City, Quincy and Wenatchee and ending in Brewster and Omak.

But the hot weather has sped up the maturing process throughout eastern Washington, Castleman said.