US Northwest Cherry Growers:
"Sweet cherries roar through holiday week"
During the same calendar dates in 2009, the rate was 489,193 boxes...during the same number of shipping days (19-28 days) the rate was 467,544 boxes. Using 23-days of June, the Northwest delivered 7.8 million boxes of fresh cherries to markets worldwide, ensuring plenty of volume for North America's independence celebrations.
"Several high temperature waves pushed harvest ahead in our early and mid-season districts compared to our Round 3 Crop Projection. It's also hastened the progression in some of our latest districts, but the overall length of our season is expected to remain the same," the organization said.
"Shippers are largely transitioning through the last of the Bing variety in a major way. As our season moves deeper into July, we historically see size, sugar, and firmness increase as more of the late-season varieties begin harvest. This should satisfy repeat customers who have already gotten a taste of Northwest cherries over the holidays. Retailers are reporting incredible sell-through, and large displays are the standard."
"The easy consensus from the large number of conversations we've had with retail buyers over the past few days is that cherries have been their number 1 sales item, and we expect that to continue in the weeks to come."
June shipped volume came in above the Round 3 Estimate of over 6.9 million boxes, with 7.8 million boxes shipping through the last day of the month. Interestingly though, the Round 3 Estimate was right on target through June 22nd, a key date to make Holiday ad breaks on June 28th across the U.S.
Domestic promotions continue to push on all fronts.
Cherry ads dominated the berry categories over the 4th of July weekend. They expected tough competition with watermelon and grapes this year.
"Both are having big years at retail, and especially given the minimal margin for variance with the projected cherry crop, we hammered on the need to plan for the Holiday ad. All three categories finished at 11 percent of total fruit ads."
Overall, 20,484 U.S. retail stores were on ad for fresh cherries over the 4th of July window, up from the strong early start of 9,308 stores the week before. Another 3,572 stores (16%) had Rainier cherries on ad, though reports from the field show many more had them on display. Watermelon is the only other category to get close to the number of stores on ad, coming in just shy of 20,000 stores over the same holiday period. Grapes combined into a category is a top contender, but the highest store count per variety (red, green, black, etc.) is just under 8,900 stores.
"The Rainier crop is experiencing incredible demand as well they claim. This season lines up well with National Rainier Cherry Day on July 11th, which shows what a difference a season can make. Through July 5th, we have shipped 1,019,182 fifteen-pound boxes from the Northwest."
"Domestically, we continue to ship fruit for test kitchens, writers, and photographers around the country. Sharing the work our growers do is perhaps the best marketing effort we can undertake, and the rise of the digital publishing world allows some of that to come full circle within a season."
"Aside from the many promotions launching this week to keep momentum going with new impressions, our general Consumer Media work continues, generating pieces such as the recipe by Bon Appetit above. We received a follow-up report covering the promoted interview portion of our Holiday cherry push."
For more information:www.nwcherries.com