A harvest season with lots of moisture has made it hard for Washington raspberry growers to combat mold. With such uncooperative weather, it looks like statewide production will be lower than last year.“This season has been a challenge,” said Henry Bierlink, executive director of the Washington Red Raspberry Commission. “The weather has worked against us, so production will be down.” He estimated that the state's crop could be down as much as 20 percent compared to last year's haul of 72 million pounds. He added that growers could bring in up to 60 million pounds this year, and that lower figure is mostly a result of mold caused by an abundance of moisture.
“We had a lot of rain and humidity this season, more than what we're used to,” he said. “We didn't have a lot of outright rain, and although we did have some untimely showers, we just had a lot of fog and mist that didn't allow the berries to dry.” That made combating mold the main concern this season, but with uncooperative weather, quality has also suffered.
“Mold has been the biggest challenge in terms of quality,” said Bierlink. “Because of that, there will be more raspberries that will be designated for juicing.” The hits to volume and quality that the weather has brought have been especially unfortunate, added Bierlink, because growers were so optimistic coming into the season.
“It's been disappointing because we had a good feeling about this year,” said Bierlink. “Berries were priced well, we had clear messaging about the health benefits of berries and there was a good market. But then we faced this, and it just didn't work out quite right.”