Vancouver, BC-based Oppy brought cherries to the market earlier than ever this year, according to Jon Bailey, who leads the company’s cherry category. “We began on May 2 thanks to bringing two top cherry brands together at the beginning of this year — Katicich Ranch and Brookside to form Katco Packing,” said Bailey. The partners invested in a brand new Unitec optical sorting line for Katco’s initial season in order to put accuracy and speed at the forefront.

Northwest Cherry shippers are ramping up for the season. “We survived the frost season with only minimal damage,” said Krista Beckstead, brand manager for Starr Ranch Growers, who reported that the crop is shaping up to be a good one, “We’ll rebound from last year’s short crop well and should have our typical availability to work with our retail partners.”

“It is a little too early to tell, but at this point we know for sure the 2021 Hood River Cherry Company crop will not be overset,” said Brad Fowler of Hood River Cherry Co. “In fact, it looks exactly like last year’s crop, which produced about 6 tons per acre of large, high-quality fruit.” While the goal for most growers is 10 tons of fruit per acre, Hood River Cherry typically harvests about half that.

The 2021 Northwest cherry season is just around the corner and Chelan Fresh is looking forward to getting started selling what looks to be a very good crop of cherries. “We’re going to have promotable volume as the overall weather has been good. We are looking at a quality crop of good-sized fruit,” said Mac Riggan, director of marketing with Chelan Fresh.

The 2021 cherry crop is shaping up nicely so far, according to Rochelle Bohm, brand manager for CMI Orchards in Wenatchee, WA. “Timing looks to be a little later than last year by about six days, which could make early June supply a challenge,” said Bohm, adding that it was a healthy crop in general with a good spread so far between all the growing districts.

As the 2021 Northwest cherry season ramps up, Stemilt Growers is already harvesting cherries from its California orchards, and expects to continue the season through mid-June. “We will have an overlap between Washington and California harvest, and expect to manage that well because of pent up demand for cherries happening worldwide,” said Brianna Shales, marketing director for Stemilt Growers.