Hood River Cherry Company’s Jared Gidley Shares Latest Cherry Season Update
From
| 4 September 2023
Overview of cherries in the U.S. market, complemented by charts from Agronometrics. Original published on August 31, 2023.
HOOD RIVER, OR – By the end of a recent conversation with Hood River Cherry Company’s Jared Gidley, my mind is overcome with the thought of sweet, juicy cherries. As the established cherry grower continues to bring flavorful fruit to the shelves of its retail partners, the Chief Executive Officer and I took a moment to discuss Hood River’s most recent season and strategies for retail success.
“We just finished harvest for our cherry season and are still shipping out Lapins as we get close to the end of the season,” shares Jared. “Overall volume was good for us this season. In terms of quality, we’ve seen probably some of the best cherries we’ve ever grown given the dynamics of the season. We had a perfect combination of warm days, some day-time lows, and our high elevation allowed us to produce some of our best cherries yet.”
Hood River Cherry Company has a robust portfolio of top-quality, tree-ripened cherry varieties that draw consumers in with the promise of high flavor. Retailers also gain category opportunities through the box these cherries come in, which makes for enticing displays in the produce department.
Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.
(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)
“We’ve had a lot of positive feedback over the years regarding our box,” Jared shares. “It’s a very high-quality box that can be used creatively to make a great, fun display that really shows off the fruit.”
While discussing this creative strategy, Jared offers some additional tips for amplifying cherry sales.
“Do what you can to keep them cold,” he advises. “While the box displays sometimes aren’t refrigerated, retailers can scale the size of the display to create turnover so it is constantly being refreshed with colder cherries. The colder the cherries are, the higher the quality.”
As Hood River Cherry Company reports, the alignment of the Oregon and California cherry seasons led to increased volumes in the market. Despite these challenges, the grower’s commitment to quality and providing a premium cherry program allowed the company to see continued success at retail.
“Given the environment of the cherry industry as a whole, we were still able to provide a strong cherry offering for our customers,” Jared says. “Even though the market was very compressed this season with an influx of supply, we were able to do what we set out to do: tree-ripen our high-elevation cherries to provide a phenomenal product.”
The News in Charts is a collection of stories from the industry complemented by charts from Agronometrics to help better tell their story.
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