Cherry harvest is well underway across the Okanagan and some farmers had an early start, while others are midway through the season.
However, it wasn’t an easy growing season for cherries, with a cold April followed by record-hot temperatures in May and some rain in June.
“This year the harvest is early. We don’t have very many late varieties in our orchard so we are almost done the harvesting,” said Beantjit Chahal, owner of Nature’s Basket in Oliver, B.C.
“It’s hard to predict, very hard to predict and actually cherry crop all the time is hard to predict. Sometimes you have lots of flowers on trees, and then we have a cold spring, then we lose the cherry crop. And sometimes we have a heavy crop, then the weather is good, then we have rain a lot of split.”
According to Parmjeet Dhaliwal, owner of Sunview Market in Oliver, farmers had high hopes for this year after an “okay” cherry season in 2022.
“That is what we were hoping for, a better year, but then we had the frost and then light crop,” said Dhaliwal. “We were very excited in the beginning and now we’re having a little bit of a hard time with the cherries.”
Dhaliwal went on to say that local farmers are also facing issues this year surrounding cherry prices and sales.
“We’re not getting the right price we need to cover expenses,” said Dhaliwal.
Chahal echoed the very same concerns, adding that the cost issue is largely due to an overpopulated cherry market.
“There are some issues with pricing and sales because of the California and Washington cherries that dumped the market,” said Chahal.
“That’s why even I checked the packing house (on Thursday); cherry prices are really low. I’m a little bit worried about the people who only have cherry orchards. You need mix orchards because there’s not enough money.”
Meanwhile, there are many varieties of fresh-picked cherries already on the market across the South Okanagan.