Nager: Northwest cherry crop will be fast-tracked
Nager: Northwest cherry crop will be fast-tracked
Looking at movement for the 2015 cherry crop from the Pacific Northwest, Howard Nager, vice president of marketing for Domex Superfresh Growers, said the message is clear.
“The dry weather last winter and warm weather this spring in the Pacific Northwest has put cherry harvest on the fast track. With the rain that was received last week, cherries are now scheduled to be harvested the last week of May,” he told The Produce News in mid-May. “With the season shifting 10 days to two weeks forward, most of the fruit will be picked, packed and shipped by the end of July.”
Nager said that the reduction in 2015 cherry volume is a result of affected production in growing regions in Oregon, which experienced some tree damage during the winter.
He expects very good quality and sizing this season.
“The biggest contributor to maintaining quality and sizing of the fruit will be the new electronic sorting and packing equipment that has recently been installed in both our Selah and Wenatchee cherry-packing locations,” Nager said. “What this will enable us to do is to pack a consistent color, size and quality pack of cherries. It will be especially efficient for the equipment to select larger size fruit for retail promotions.”
Domex will also have a small program very late in the season with fruit grown in Flathead Lake, MT.
“These cherries have created a special niche in the marketplace with their local address being promoted by many retailers in the region,” Nager added.
The company is a global supplier of cherries. In addition to domestic sales, he said, “We export cherries to over 50 countries, [including] Canada, Mexico, South Korea, Taiwan, Australia and China to name a few.”
The company’s social media campaign began on May 15 and will end on July 31.
“We continue to use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest as our social media platforms and will be providing our retail partners with interesting, high-quality cherry content for their use on their own social media platforms,” Nager stated.
