Though not as early as had been predicted, Oregon cherries grown by Orchard View Farms in The Dalles and marketed by The Oppenheimer Group were on shelves May 28 or 29, according to Jon Bailey, grandson of company founders Walter and Mabel Bailey and deal manager for Oppy.

Bailey said that start date is seven to nine days ahead of last year, but he added, “We had been thinking we were 14 days ahead, but with cooler weather we have backed up a few days.”

Rainiers, typically coming off later than the dark sweets, are also early this season, and Bailey said he expects them to start June 1.

Overall good growing conditions for large fruit have brought about “better-than-average sizing this season,” Bailey said, adding that volume is likely to hit its stride around June 8.

“We anticipate our volume not really kicking in until June 8-10,” he explained. “Due to the mid-November freeze, we are off approximately 40 percent from last year, as is most of Oregon, though we are more optimistic now than we were a month ago.  Our trees have come through the trauma better than we had first feared, and we will still have 550,000-600,000 cartons available.”

Thanks to the early timing by Mother Nature, Oppy and Orchard View are in a good position to promote fruit for summer holidays.

“We are set up well for Fathers Day, Fourth of July and Canada Day. The bulk of the Northwest crop will be in June and early July, so those will be the biggest promotion events,” he said.

However, because the season is getting off to an early start, it will also clean up earlier.

“The entire season has moved up so we see our end to be around July 16,” Bailey said. “Typically we would be going into the first few days of August.”

The standard domestic pack for Orchard View’s cherries is the 12x2.25-pound high-graphic pouch pack. Specific customers also receive clamshells, he said. For exports, the cherries go out in five-kilogram and 20-pound bulk cartons, with Japan receiving an 18-pound bulk carton and smaller clams for its retail trade.

Now in its fourth generation, Orchard View Farms has been a part of the Northwest’s cherry industry since 1923. Walter and Mabel’s son, Don, and his wife, Edwina, joined the operation before 1940, and their four sons — Bob, Ken, Tom and Jon — also came on board. In the 1980s the third generation of Baileys planted additional orchard acreage and oversaw the construction of a cold storage plant and fresh cherry packingline.

Bob Bailey’s daughter, Brenda Thomas, is president of OVF, and his nephew, David Ortega, is production manager. A management team oversees some 2,000 acres and packs up to 10,000 tons of cherries annually.

Jon Bailey said organics are currently not a part of the Orchard View cherry production, but he said, “We are realizing that there is a definite interest from retailers and consumers, so we are looking at all of the logistics and issues for possibly working toward having a supply of organics in the future.”

As the company keeps pace with retail and consumer demands, it also keeps pace with technology.

“Immediately following this season, we will begin expanding our building for adding a Unitec optical sizer that will handle our entire volume in 2016 and onward.  We are very excited for what this new technology will be able to do not only for our growers, but our customers as well.”

Orchard View Farms is GlobalGAP certified, and Bailey said, “We continually are working at keeping up with and exceeding all new regulations and requirements for food safety.”