The 2025 cherry season quickly turned into what Loren Foss, vice president of commercial strategy at CMI Orchards, describes as “possibly one of the worst years for cherry prices in the last 15 to 20 years”.
“Volume from Washington came in very quickly, and we couldn’t get retailers to react quickly enough to lower prices and move the volume we needed”, Foss explains.
And while the situation was already challenging, the outlook becomes even more dramatic when you consider that, in terms of quality, this season was a success for growers. The crop suffered no aesthetic or flavor damage from the heat, but climate change brought its arrival to market earlier, creating a logistical nightmare: an already abundant crop became even larger and ended up competing directly with California cherries for market space.
Foss explains that when Washington’s volume was increasing, California cherries were still on the market at very high prices, so retailers—who had paid high prices for that fruit—didn’t want to lose their investment. Bad news for Washington: prices didn’t adjust for its cherries.
“We never got off the ground”, Foss laments.
No fireworks for Washington cherries
Typically, cherries from Washington and California don’t compete with each other. Foss notes that fruit from his state begins to be harvested in June, by which time the California supply has already gone out of circulation. This typically leaves markets empty and ready to receive product—a green signal for Washington to start shipping volume just in time to meet June’s high demand and prepare for the big cherry event: the Fourth of July.
“During that month, we can move at least half of the state’s crop with stable prices until the Fourth of July. After the holiday, we typically see prices start to decline as we clear the remainder of the crop”, says Foss.
But 2025 was different. He explains that the state’s cherries never achieved strong commercial traction in June, their key month, even though the industry insisted on asking retailers to “lower the asking price to encourage movement”. Even during the summer holidays, prices dropped to $4.99, even reaching $3.99, a much deeper discount than the industry is accustomed to during that season.
A Painful Irony
As expected, this year’s low prices had a significant impact on growers’ incomes, and many were forced to abandon their orchards.
“They’re saying, ‘We’re going to get a bill instead of a refund,’ for bringing in their fruit, so there’s quite a bit of fruit left on the tree”, Foss notes. “And keep in mind that this year the fruit was top-notch for consumption: excellent flavor, excellent quality, but with extremely low prices”.
From a grower’s perspective, the vice president of commercial strategy at CMI Orchards is frustrated by the irony of the situation: “They’re producing fantastic fruit. They’re doing their job. It’s just a matter of making that effort translate into profitability for the grower.”
Source: Portal Frutícola
