Marketing, technology, disease and a new Cherry King mark Cherry Institute 2025 – Good Fruit Grower

B.J. Thurlby, president of Northwest Cherries, recaps the 2024 cherry season to kick off the 82nd annual Cherry Institute Jan. 10 in Yakima. (TJ Mullinax/Good Fruit Grower)Directors of Northwest Cherries advised growers Jan. 10 on the 82nd annual Cherry Institute in Yakima, Washington, that the 2024 season was profitable in delivery and promotions, a welcome vivid spot after a number of powerful years.“Since you guys grew nice cherries, it was a fairly good season,” mentioned B.J. Thurlby, president of Northwest Cherries.The 2024 crop delivered a quantity in keeping with the five-year common of enormous fruit, Thurlby mentioned. About 90 % of cherries shipped in 2024 have been 10.5 row or bigger. Additionally, the cargo season was unfold out greater than in 2023 and didn’t overlap with California almost as a lot, serving to maintain costs greater.Karley Lange, director of home operations, and Keith Hu, director of worldwide operations, advised growers that the Ooh La La promotional marketing campaign — a nod to the 2024 Paris Olympics — was a success in the US and overseas. The 2 synchronized the marketing campaign for the primary time in about 20 years, they mentioned.Lange advised growers the marketing campaign reached an viewers of 414.5 million views, which incorporates digital and print media, diet newsletters, influencer campaigns and recipes. Well being messaging — such because the analysis displaying cherries cut back irritation — permeated the content material.Lange additionally organized a localized promotion by establishing a particular cherry-focused menu at Troutdale, Oregon, restaurant Sugarpine Drive-In. The Cherries Jubilee ice cream desert was talked about within the New York Instances.The longer term purpose is to succeed in youthful folks and households, Lange mentioned. Market analysis tells her the common age of the cherry client is between 55 and 65.The look of the marketing campaign was anchored by a picture of a younger red-haired girl extraordinarily completely happy in regards to the snack of cherries she holds in her hand. “The redhead is in all places,” mentioned Hu. He satisfied transportation officers in and round Bangkok, Thailand, to wrap commuter trains within the imagery, in addition to mild up the stations with the promotions.“I’m planning to make use of the redhead for 2 extra years,” Hu mentioned.Per McCord, the Washington State College cherry breeder, advised growers that the R19, one in all three new cherry varieties in Section 3 trials, could also be launched and obtainable for tree supply in 2027. The self-fertile Benton/Selah cross harvests in early June, about the identical time as Chelan, however is firmer, bigger and sweeter.Kate Tynan, senior vice chairman of the Northwest Horticultural Council, shared updates — together with some encouraging information — about H-2A rules.“This is likely one of the few instances I even have some excellent news to share,” she mentioned.One little bit of that excellent news: President-elect Donald Trump’s choice for the U.S. Division of Labor is Lori Chavez-DeRemer, a former [R1] [JM2] Republican Congresswoman from Oregon. She is a fan of the H-2A program, has a background in agriculture and favors insurance policies that line up with these of the fruit trade, Tynan mentioned.In the meantime, three federal judges have utilized the brakes to new H-2A rules that have been presupposed to take impact in August final yr. Amongst them is a stipulation that may take away lots of flexibility for employers to toggle between piece fee and hourly wages, relying on the duty. The court docket circumstances proceed.Cherry King crownedAt lunch, the cherry trade celebrated with the crowning of the 2025 Cherry King. Mike Taylor of Stemilt Growers, the 2024 Cherry King, introduced the crown to plant pathologist Gary Grove who spent 38 years at Washington State College working to assist cherry growers handle powdery mildew. “You won’t know this yr’s Cherry King, however his work is (felt) in your backside line,” Taylor mentioned. “Mildew is a curse, and when it’s dangerous, it’s a killer. It’s powerful on the receiver, it’s powerful on the grower and it’s exhausting on the packing room — and so the work you might have performed is super.” Mike Taylor, left, the 2024 Cherry King, crowns 2025 Cherry King Gary Grove. Grove retired on the finish of 2024, after 38 years as a pathologist at Washington State College, the place he targeted on serving to cherry growers handle powdery mildew. (TJ Mullinax/Good Fruit Grower)Grove, a local of Ohio, adopted his plant pathology diploma west to a postdoctoral analysis place on the College of California, Davis, and launched into cherry powdery mildew analysis when he joined WSU in 1986. He retired on the finish of 2024, however he got here to the Cherry Institute to present just a few remaining talks on the teachings discovered throughout his profession earlier than heading to the Caribbean to observe his ardour for scuba diving. Earlier than his crowning, Grove advised growers that the important thing to managing powdery mildew is robust year-over-year administration via rigorously deliberate spray applications that handle for the event of resistance and are utilized with good protection. “The easiest way to reduce the overwintering inoculum going into the rising season of 2025 is to have successfully managed it in 2024,” Grove mentioned.  “It’s an ongoing course of linked via years.”Grove additionally thanked the trade for the popularity and the collaboration through the years.“It means the world to me,” he mentioned. “I don’t assume I ever had anybody say no to me once I requested for a spot to do cooperative analysis.” Keynote speechDuring the lunchtime keynote speech, Walt Duflock, vice chairman of innovation for Western Growers in California, gave a sobering evaluation of agricultural coverage and automation for his state, warning related insurance policies may have related results in Washington. For one, agricultural acreage has been lowering in California however rising quickly in Peru, the place the federal authorities invests in water storage, and a center class of farmers is rising. Not surprisingly, he mentioned, the worth of Peru’s ag exports has elevated 21-fold over the previous 20 years. Walt Duflock, vice chairman of innovation for Western Growers, delivers the keynote speech on the Cherry Institute lunch. (TJ Mullinax/Good Fruit Grower)Duflock steers Western Growers’ efforts to assist specialty crops within the West automate.“If we don’t try this, acreage goes to maneuver,” he mentioned.—by Ross Courtney



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