2021 Shipped Crop To Date: 8,879,137 boxes as of July 5th
Excessive heat can delay fruit development just as much as cooler weather.
Duration of this heat wave encouraged growers who were close to harvest to begin picking and shipping before their fruit was subjected to the heat. Such an upward shift in volume will have an eventual impact on the overall daily potential volume.
So while some more fruit arrived at the optical sorters before otherwise expected, the Northwest did lose some cherries due to the extreme heat. Cherries on the perimeter of the trees were more greatly impacted than fruit within the canopies. Thankfully, many growers were able to mitigate the worst of the heat with over-orchard netting and under-canopy sprinklers and thus were able to save much of their fruit. And at this point, no effects on green or developing cherries have been detected.
Even with the spike of fruit intake before the heat by most warehouses, June volume still fell well under the forecast due weather delays. With close to 8.4 million boxes, the preliminary June 2021 total was just under 2 million boxes shy (18%) of the last pre-crop estimate.
While the first week of June saw an average of 31,000 boxes a day, the Northwest has averaged an additional half-million additional boxes shipped per day (530,000) for the last week of the month.
It’s obvious the preseason estimate of 22.4 million boxes couldn’t take into account a record-smashing heat wave.
Big volume cherry shipments should continue into August as planned. The cherries in many higher elevations and norther latitude orchards are still green and growing well.
While most retails are now carrying Northwest fruit, there is still some late California fruit to be found in markets around the US. California’s volume increased 283% from last year, and 231% over the 3 year average. This lingering California fruit has delayed the transition into Northwest cherries, and caused perhaps more of an issue for Northwest shippers than the weather.
Yakima Valley cherries – grossing about $9700 to New York City.