Some Western cherry shipments are finished, but the Northwest cherry crop is coming on….Meanwhile, the Eastern Shore of Maryland, Virginia and Delaware is underway with vegetables.
California cherry shipments are ending up at nearly 9 million, 18-pound boxes, which would exceed the 8.7 million-box-record loadings in 2008. It may very well be California’s best and largest sweet cherry season ever as Washington state’s harvest gets underway. Hollister, CA finished about a week ago.
Last year California finished with 5.1 million boxes after losing about 3 million boxes to rain.
California’s cherry industry has had many disappointments in recent years due to rain or heat. Inadequate winter chill led to poor fruit set in 2014 and a crop of just 2.7 million boxes. And 2005 and 2006 were at 3 million boxes or less.
California shipments averaged 250,000 boxes per day between May 5 and June 4, with a peak of 377,000 boxes on May 23.
About 70 percent of California’s crop was shipped to all regions of the U.S. and 9.4 percent to Canada, 9 percent to South Korea and the balance to Japan, China, Hong Kong and a few others.
Pacific Northwest Cherry Shipments
Pacific Northwest cherry shipments are forecast at 22.7 million boxes with Washington cherry shipments accounting 81 percent of it. The Northwest counts by 22-pound boxes and California by 18-pound boxes.
The Washington harvest began with the Chelan variety at Doebler Orchard near Mattawa on June 6.
It was a limited run for the first cherries, but packing cranked up about June 15 as more orchards started picking.
Yakima Valley apple and pear shipments – grossing about $4500 to Dallas.
Eastern Shore Vegetable Shipments
All packing sheds on the Eastern Shore were running as of yesterday.
Fresh potato shipments are particularly good for Canada this season with reds, russets and yellows being shipped from areas of the Eastern Shore. However, the majority of potatoes are shipped throughout the Northeast when those areas are not producing.
The largest russet grower on the Eastern Shore is Yaros Farms in Lower Northampton County. Dublin Farms in Horntown is one of Virginia’s biggest potato operations. It ships 12 to 15 loads daily from late June through mid-August.
When the southern states stop shipping, loadings are redirected there. Depending on the volume from Canadian potatoes from year to year, the Eastern Shore also distributes into in Canada.
There typically is between 3,000 and 4,000 acres of potatoes grown on the Eastern Shore.
C&E Farms in Cheriton, VA, is one of the largest green bean operations in the nation. C&E Farms also ships green beans from North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Florida. The company has packing facilities in Cheriton and in Parrish, FL.
Virginia’s three major tomato operations, Lipman Family Farms, Pacific Tomato Growers and Del Monte, will be shipping about equal volumes of round, roma, grape, cherry and heirloom tomatoes from late June through September.