Published 1:00 pm Monday, August 7, 2023
THE DALLES, Ore. — Oregon cherry growers are asking Gov. Tina Kotek for help to offset what has been a difficult harvest, threatening to put some orchards out of business.
The main issue stems from California, where cherries are usually picked and sold between late May and early June. But an unusually cool and wet weather pushed the state’s harvest back by several weeks, causing it to overlap with Oregon’s and Washington’s crop in late June and July.
The result was a glut of fruit on the market, dropping prices well below the cost of production for farms.
State Rep. Jeff Helfrich, a Republican representing the Columbia Gorge where most Oregon cherries are grown, sent a letter July 31 to Kotek requesting a disaster declaration.
“Financial losses will be severe for many Oregon sweet cherry producers, and for the farmworkers and communities who rely on the summer influx of economic activity during the cherry harvest,” Helfrich wrote.
One year ago, farmers received $1.10 per pound of fresh cherries, said Mike Doke, executive director of the Columbia Gorge Fruit Growers.
With the market glut in 2023, he said packers are only paying 35-55 cents per pound of cherries. The cost of production, meanwhile, was 93 cents per pound, meaning growers received at best a 38-cent-per-pound loss on their fruit.
Doke estimated 25-40% of Oregon cherries went unpicked this year.
“There was no market,” he said. “We wanted to get this topic on the governor’s radar and let her know this is a huge problem for the cherry industry.”
Anca Matica, a spokeswoman for Kotek, said the governor “recognizes the serious impact of these losses on cherry farmers’ incomes” and is working with the industry, the state Department of Agriculture and federal partners to see what resources are available.
“The governor received the request for a disaster declaration last week and her team will be prioritizing this request, including reviewing any options at the federal level that may exist,” Matica said in a statement.
Jeff Heater, who grows 66 acres of cherries near The Dalles, said he normally picks 400-450 tons from his orchards. This year, he harvested just 40 tons of fresh cherries and another 70 tons for processing — such as maraschino cherries.
Heater also works with 25 other farms in the Columbia Gorge as a crop consultant Nutrien Ag Solutions. Of those, he said none of his growers picked 100% of their fruit. In some cases, entire blocks went entirely unpicked.
“This has been by far the worst year I’ve seen for the industry,” said Heater, who has been farming for 35 years.
Even with disaster assistance, Heater said it will probably not be enough to save every farm that is threatening to go out of business.
“I’m really happy I’ve got a regular paying job that allows me to continue farming,” he said. “There are a lot of farmers that don’t have that extra income in their account.”
Doke, with Columbia Gorge Fruit Growers, said this is the third year in a row that farms in the area have faced a major climate-related challenge. Two years ago, it was extreme heat that gripped the Pacific Northwest in June, causing early-season cherry varieties to cook on the tree.
In 2022, there was an untimely snowstorm in April that blanketed the Gorge, disrupting pollination after trees had already bloomed.
Not only are these disasters affecting crop production, but thousands of migrant workers also come to the Gorge annually for harvest, Doke said. These employees and their families will often stay in on-farm agricultural housing, but if there’s no work available, that leaves them with nowhere to go.
“Less cherry harvest work means less housing is available, adding to Oregon’s precarious housing crisis,” Helfrich wrote in his letter to Kotek.
Cherries ranked as Oregon’s ninth-most valuable agricultural commodity in 2020 at $133.8 million, according to ODA.
