News is that early season varieties did not pollinate well in California, the only exception being Coral Champagne.
The early crop may be down by two thirds, making it the lightest crop for the last five years.
It would be interesting to find out the reason why this occurred—but it does sound familiar when thinking about last season in Australia.
Recent rain in California is also likely to have an effect on the crop potential. The other factor coming into play here is that because of the lighter crop, most of the cherries will be harvested and sold before cherries in the North-West states have even started. This is very unusual.
The normal scenario is that both areas are in the market at the same time for a period.
Although a little too soon to predict for Oregon, Washington and the other cherry producing states in the North-West, blossom has almost finished and the crop could be about average.
The field men from the packing houses will be assessing the crop shortly.
There is a long history of planning the marketing of fruit that is based on sound data. It starts early in the season and is followed through, so that the spread of potential for cherry sales is well coordinated.
Aus still missing valuable data
Still missing in the Australian cherry industry is sound tree numbers and crop predictive data that could be used as a tool to assist marketers and help plan solid results.
Rather than flooding a particular market when potential glut periods occur, we do need to get smarter about how as an industry we manage and share this data.
All that is required is the will to do it, and a driver to push it along. Food for thought.
For more information, see Tree Fruit May 2014
