Northwest cherry harvest at full speed

The forecast has become a reality. "As growers across our different regions started working deeper into their Bing crops, we thankfully saw a marked increase in Northwest daily total shipments," explained James Michael from Northwest Cherry Growers. Nature worked especially hard against the Bings in 2016 and 2017 for some reason, but seems to be trying to make up for it this year. "Dark, crunchy and sweet, the arrival of the Bings in the marketplace led to a statistical rise in consumer emails into our office praising the cherry crop. Our growers and shippers are working around the clock in an attempt to meet the worldwide demand."

This strong start in June has relatively followed the pre-season projections. "Assuming that trend continues, now is the time to lock into cherries for the late July/early August window and capitalize on the last chance at summer sales."

"The Northwest light sweet crop has been shaping up nicely this season. As with the earliest dark sweet varieties, the Early Robin and early plantings of Rainiers showed a little more winter reduction on the crop. However, the transition to Rainier is nearly complete in all regions. Overall sizing of the light sweets is up compared to last season. These color-picked favorites will make great displays for National Rainier Cherry Day on July 11th - the next ad week following the 4th of July."