“It helps to have an early start if you can get volume peaks around holidays,” noted Randy Steensma with Honey Bear Tree Fruit Company in Wenatchee. “You sometimes peak right on the July Fourth holiday, and it's a tough time to be shipping on a three-day holiday, but the timing was perfect this year.”
This year's harvest commenced about 10 days earlier than normal, and that shift in the season brought on big volumes ahead of the upcoming holiday. That's prompted shippers and retailers to work together to maintain good movement.
“Prices were high compared to where California ended, but now they've settled into a nice promotable range,” said Steensma. “There are promotions out there so we can get a lot of volume through the holiday. You want good movement when in the flush of harvest.”
On June 28, prices for a carton of 10 row Bing cherries from Wenatchee were between $32.00 and $36.90, and prices for a carton of 11 row Bings were between $26.00 and $30.90.
Production is expected to be down this year when compared to the 2015 crop. Early estimates already predicted this year's crop would be light, but rain earlier in the season means production will be even lighter.
“We've dodged and weaved on some of the storms that passed through, so damage to our crop has been very light so far,” said Steensma. “We still have a third of the season to go, and no one knows if there are more storms ahead, but I think we'll be down 10 percent, at most.”
