A small statewide cherry crop had been predicted ever since snow and cold interfered with the April blooming season, and final harvest numbers show just how small it was.
Northwest cherry growers harvested 13,277,332 boxes this year, a 34.5% decline from the harvest of 20.3 million 20-pound boxes in 2021, according to data released Dec. 14 during a meeting of the Washington State Fruit Commission.
Typically, harvests average about 20 million boxes, although annual crops have been declining from 2017’s record-setting 26.43 million-box harvest, said B.J. Thurlby, Northwest Cherry Growers president.
Thurlby said cherry growing districts in Washington saw the third-coldest April temperatures and the most May and June precipitation since 1948. Those weather conditions resulted in a smaller and later-developing crop, he said.
Monthly shipment totals show how adverse weather conditions delayed the crop. This year, only 2.86 million boxes of cherries shipped in June, compared to 8.29 million in 2021 and a five-year average of 8.91 million boxes during the month.
While Thurlby said 8.16 million boxes of cherries shipped during July 2022, compared to a five-year average of 12.22 million, those boxes were sent later than the usual early-July peak for cherry shipments and sales.
The number of 20-pound boxes shipped between July 1 and 7 was 1.8 million, Northwest Cherry Growers reported, the lowest amount during that week since 2013. The previous year, 2.9 million boxes shipped during the first week of July, and at least 2.9 million boxes were shipped eight times over the past 13 years.
The combination of April frost and snowfall, along with the effects of colder temperatures on flower development and bee activity, reduced pollination levels for cherry trees in the Yakima Valley and elsewhere in the state, Thurlby said.
Yakima Valley growers from Naches to Grandview, and all points in between, noted that bees are more active when temperatures climb above 60 degrees, and colder temperatures during the limited pollination window for cherry trees meant crops anywhere from 10 to 60% below average this year.
The weather woes and lower production weren’t limited to the Yakima Valley, Washington or the Northwest region in 2022, Thurlby said.
In his recent presentation to the state fruit commission, Thurlby said California’s cherry crop fell nearly 50% from 2021 levels, with 4.7 million boxes shipped this year compared to 9.1 million the year before.
So even a poor year in the Northwest produced nearly three times the amount of cherries as California growers, he added.
Thurlby’s report also showed which varieties of cherries were most popular among growers, with sweet cherries and dark sweets most popular by a wide margin.
Using Washington State Department of Agriculture figures, there were 4.3 million boxes of sweet cherries shipped in 2022, or 38.4% of the state’s total 2022 shipments.
Dark sweet cherries were next, with 2.5 million 20-pound boxes shipped, or 22.2% of the state’s crop.
Rainier shipment totals declined 35% between 2021 and 2022, from 1.74 million to 1.14 million boxes for the Northwest region — roughly the same percentage of decline as the overall cherry crop, Thurlby said.
He noted Rainiers remain 8.6% of the total amount of cherries shipped in the region, the same percentage as 2021, but down a bit from the 2018 and 2019 harvests, which were more than 10% Rainier cherries.
Finally, a smaller crop combined with the national trend of inflation meant higher store prices for cherries in 2022, Thurlby said.
He noted Northwest cherries had a 72% higher price on July 4, 2022, compared to the same date one year earlier.
By comparison, grapes, strawberries and blueberries’ prices increased about 16% over the same period.
The average U.S. retail ad price per pound for cherries between June 5 and Aug. 28 ranged from $5.81 in early June to $3.90 in late July, Thurlby said.
He said $4.99 and below seemed to be the sweet spot on price relative to sales velocity in 2022 — in other words, at what price cherries consistently moved off the shelves.
