OLIVER, B.C.– Cherry grower Greg Norton jokes he would be eating lunch with Donald Trump if he had last year’s crop with this year’s prices.
Okanagan growers had a “monster crop” last year, but so did Washington state, which ensured that prices were low at 67 cents per pound.
This year, the crop the Washington state crop is expected to be half the size of 2009.
The Okanagan crop is smaller as well, but the fruit is high quality and a good size. That ensures high prices, but Norton didn’t want to speculate what they will be.
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“Last year was pretty miserable,” said the president of the Okanagan- Kootenay Cherry Association. “We had record low prices until Aug. 15. The guys who had late fruit did pretty well, but there were poor returns for the bulk of cherry growers.
“But this year, B.C. cherries will be well received by the consumer and that’s important,” said Norton.
“I don’t think we’ve had a crop that has been through so many unusual weather events,” he said.
“It started last October when we had early cold weather. We had a mild winter, which seemed good, but on our farm, we had three nights of pretty cold frost. I had more frost damage than normal.
“The good news is, we didn’t have the early heat stress in May and early June, but I’m predicting we are going to get some terrible heat and I’m not sure how well the fruit will take that.”
Norton said there hasn’t been much rain damage in the South Okanagan and he only used a helicopter once to whip water off the cherries, while the average is six to eight times.
But Lake Country grower Sal Tangaro used a helicopter almost as much as his tractor.
“I have used them four times because we had rain at the worst times. Once, we had to use the machines twice in 24 hours.”
Like Norton, Tangaro is optimistic about a good year.
“My gut feeling is the market will be strong because supply is less than demand. If you have good fruit, and a good customer base, you should do
well.”
