Too many cherries in E Washington orchards

Too much of a good thing has turned into a disaster for Eastern Washington cherry growers.

Growers had expected a great year. But they wound up with too much fruit and the market quickly became saturated.

"It was the perfect storm," grower Shawn McNeill told The Wenatchee World. He had twice as much fruit this year as his best previous crop, but expects to do little more than break even.

A combination of winter tree damage, perfect pollination and a late harvest meant far more cherries arrived at packinghouses all at once than could be marketed. The glut caused market prices to drop below what it costs some growers to produce the fruit. Average prices for best-quality cherries range between $20 to $26 for an 18-pound box, about half of what they were last year.

McNeill said he made a concentrated effort to grow large cherries and was able to harvest about 85 percent of his fruit. Still, he left behind more than 6 tons of Bings and about 10 tons of Rainier cherries that were too small to market profitably.

"I had to walk away from limbs and whole trees. That was hard," he said.

This year's harvest passed its peak last weekend, but farmers will continue to harvest late-season cherries through August.

McNeill said some growers are having to decide whether it's worth it to pick their fruit or let it hang. Picking and packing are the most expensive parts of the business.

"It's a hard decision to make," McNeill said.

This is an entirely new challenge for cherry growers, said Tim Smith, the Washington State University tree fruit extension agent for North Central Washington.

"It's difficult to look at a tree that has beautiful fruit on it and not pick it. A lot of things happened this year to create this situation. One thing that didn't happen was poor quality," Smith said.

He predicted growers who had exceptionally large cherries may still do well financially this season and he had hope that prices might improve for late season cherries.

Farmers have faced the possibility of a huge crop for several years after significant growth in cherry orchards over the past decade. In the past few years, weather and other factors have reduced the crop to a manageable size, but not this year.

Northwest Cherry Growers estimated this year's crop at about 18 million 20-pound boxes. That's about 20 percent more than the record 2006 crop and nearly twice as large as the 2007 crop. The amount of fruit actually packed, however, could be less than a record because of fruit left in the orchard.

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Information from: The Wenatchee World, http://www.wenatcheeworld.com