“It was a pretty tough cherry season for Canada this year,” says Rick Chong with Sutherland S.A. Produce, Inc. “We had 20 days of rain, which really impacted the quality of the crop.” Furthermore, El Niño has been affecting the cherry crop for the past two seasons. “Because of the different weather patterns, most cherry varieties matured at the same time, which really compressed the Canadian cherry season. Normally, our season is ten weeks, but the last two years it was reduced to six weeks,” shared Chong. Overall crop volume was only down 15 percent from last year. Without the rain, this year would have been a bumper crop.
“Our crop overlapped with Washington state, which squeezed prices globally for the first two weeks of our season. As a result, there was a lower return for the growers. The last four weeks of the season however, prices were really good,” according to Chong.
Reduced exports to Asia and Europe
Exports were limited this season. Asia likes their cherries as hard as rocks, but because of the rain, the fruit was about 20 percent less firm this year. “Because cherries for the Chinese market were not as plentiful this year, the country was screaming for them and willing to pay high prices.” To make the cherries for the Asian export market hard and crunchy, a natural spray called Gibberellic acid (GA) is applied at the beginning of the season. This spray delays maturity of the crop up to a week and as long as less than 55 parts per million are used, the spray doesn’t affect next year’s crop.
Exports to Europe were reduced as the continent’s own production came in late, while Canada was three weeks early this year. By the time Europe was done with its own cherry harvest and ready to import from Canada, the Canadian season was over. As a result, most Canadian cherries were sold in the domestic market and into the US this year.
The Canadian cherry season finished August 15.
