Mike Taylor, VP Sales and Marketing and Marketing, Stemilt Growers<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">We are harvesting cherries in the Wenatchee area off the Columbia River as far north as Bridgeport, and we are also harvesting in the Yakima Valley area. We’re looking at good supply now, with volume picking up for peak shipping periods for promotion for retailers. The last two weeks of July and through the first week of August, we’ll be at high volume levels and really into strong fruit. The market is good--we’ve got a lot of people assessing their sales through the fourth period. We’ve got worldwide demand for product from Europe and Asia and all over. And again, we’ll have Rainier cherries for sale through the month of July, but this coming week is our peak of the Rainier harvest.<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Tim Evans, General Sales Manager, Chelan Fresh<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">We’re harvesting northern Chelan County and parts of southern and northern Okanogen County. We’re pretty much finishing up in red cherries on Bing and starting into some of the Canadian varieties, the Skeena, Lapin, and later move into Sweetheart. Also, this is our peak week for Rainier cherries. We are ramping up this week, and we’ll hit our peak between the 20th and 30th of July. There will be good promotable volumes through that first week of August, probably up until the 10th of August, and they should have good strong ads booked through the second week of August. <hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">Steve Castleman, VP Domestic Sales, CMI<hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">We are currently packing Skeenas, and we’ll be into Sweethearts by this weekend. The earlier rains and wind reduced the Bing crop by about 10 percent and Rainiers about 15-20 percent. Currently, we’ve been in a warming trend, and it has tended to accelerate the Sweetheart harvest. The market coming off July 4th holiday did okay, but I don’t think it was outstanding. It’s been moderate the past week, but things are picking up this weekend. Well I think that the industry is expecting some of the largest and best quality fruit of the season over the next couple of weeks. <hr class="legacyRuler"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding"><hr class="invisible minimal-padding">
