Sep 26, 2013

CIAB recommends no restriction on tart cherries

The Cherry Industry Administrative Board (CIAB), the national marketing order for red tart cherries, convened in Grand Rapids, Mich., in September to calculate and recommend the final free and restricted percentages for the crop year 2013-14. (“Free” tonnage is that portion of the crop that can be marketed without reservation. “Restricted” production is that portion of the crop that must be either retained in inventory or marketed only in designated markets).

CIAB concluded that there should be no recommendation to restrict the current crop, and that all cherries produced this season be made available to the marketplace as free tonnage. This recommendation offers the industry the opportunity to grow and rebuild its markets following last season’s crop failure, according to the board.

Each year, CIAB is charged with recommending to USDA the final percentage of the crop that should be considered free and that which should be restricted under the marketing order’s Optimum Supply Formula (OSF). The fall percentages are calculated using the industry’s actual production of tart cherries for the year, rather than the estimate of production made in June, which is used to determine preliminary percentages.

The restriction calculated under the OSF is a function of crop size and other relevant factors, including market conditions, circumstances leading up to the current harvest, quality of the current crop, expected movement for cherries throughout the year, the impact of competing product and various other components, according to CIAB.

At 286 million pounds, this year’s tart cherry harvest was a good crop in general, and a welcome response to last season’s crop failure. The quality of the cherries throughout the country was excellent, according to CIAB.