No sour cherries were tossed at Cherry Industry Administrative Board (CIAB) chair Curtis Rowley as he faced a room of unhappy growers, many of whom had gone seasons without a profitable crop.
In fact, he left the presentation with a round of applause as growers came to better understand underlying problems facing the industry and how CIAB is working to address them. Rowley spoke last month prior to the Cherry Marketing Institute luncheon at the Northwest Michigan Orchard and Vineyard Show at the Grand Traverse Resort.
“Good, bad or indifferent, we’re at a point as an industry asking what is the best way to move forward,” said Rowley, whose family’s irrigated orchards are located 20 miles south of Provo, Utah.
He provided a message that recognized several seasons of unprofitability for the tart cherry industry while pledging that the CIAB will work to better communicate with and help unite growers.
“The challenge is we as growers don’t have a lot to say in this industry. That’s the biggest challenge. We’ve got to help producers know we’re trying to make money, just as they are trying to make money … that’s the challenge of the next several years. How do we work together so we’re not pushed out of what we love to do?” he said.
Rowley presented a graph comparing prices paid to growers, sales of tart cherries and the total supply of tart cherries in the USA. Grower prices peaked in 2013-14 and sales peaked in 2001-02. Supply remained somewhat stable over the past decade, although peaks and valleys for all three lines on the graph point to an unpredictable industry.
Lows for grower returns over the past three seasons — averaging about 20 cents per pound — are forcing some orchardists to pull tart cherry trees rather than planting for the future.
Rowley ended on a hopeful note and a pledge.
CIAB has budgeted to spend an additional $500,000 on promotion, has hired a new marketing firm, and has joined with other organizations and commodity groups to promote the use of healthy foods in school lunch programs. Some 4.6 billion school lunches are served annually in America.
“That’s my goal. I think we keep pushing that K-12 arena, and I think it’s doable,” he said.
CIAB has also restarted partnerships in university studies designed to flesh out new health benefits from cherry consumption.
His pledge to growers is based on a simple formula that came to him while driving a couple years ago.
“Transparency plus truth equals trust,” he said.
