The Flavor Tree Fruit Co. specializes in early-season cherries, typically with a substantial percentage of the early deal—roughly one-quarter to one-third of it, depending on the year.
“In addition to having standard varietal offerings, we also have the most important proprietary cherry variety program in California,” said Maurice E. Cameron, sales director of the Hanford, CA-based company. “We have exclusive marketing and packing rights to Bradford Genetics cherry varieties released in the past 20 or so years. So, premium varieties like Sequoia, Yosemite and ArvinGlen are ours alone.”
Flavor Tree is also a substantial player in the Rainier deal in California, having about one-third to one-fifth of the crop.
“We are by far, the largest player in the small organic cherry production in California as well,” Cameron said. “Many years, we’ve had the lion’s share of the crop, but even last year we still had the majority of production in the state. We have new organic offerings coming into production, as well as more volume in our second-generation proprietary varieties. These varieties offer better taste and post-harvest shelf life than competing varieties.”
History has shown that the most important thing to have to be successful in marketing cherries are great growers who know how to farm specific varieties in a challenging climate.
“The southern San Joaquin Valley isn’t the optimum place to grow cherries, but with the dedication of good growers who know how to prune, manage crop loads, and manage cultivation practices, we can really be successful in marketing great quality cherries to an eager marketplace,” Cameron said. “When California starts cherries, there has generally been a supply void, so many consumers are salivating for cherries. We are able to deliver a great eating experience, which satisfies them and brings back the repeat sale to our retail partners.”
Last year started off with a bang for the company, with great quality and lots of volume; however, a few weeks into the season, mother nature decided to make it “wet, and wet, and wet, and wet.
“It wasn’t good for the cherries, and many growers lost lots of their crops,” Cameron continued. “We had some early growers who had a fantastic year because they finished before the rains came. But many growers suffered greatly from crop loss. This happens from time to time in the California cherry deal.”
Because the trees hung a large crop in 2019, many of the varieties this year are coming back a little lighter in quantity. For instance, Tulares were fairly light in 2019, so they have a decent crop this year. But most of the other varieties were heavy in 2019, so potential volume per acre is less.
“The only difference is that lots of fruit was lost to rain in 2019, so even with a lighter potential in 2020, we may actually be consistent with 2019 numbers if we don’t lose fruit to inclement weather,” Cameron said.
In 2020, the big buzz has been an increase in supply of several new varieties.
“We have lots of new blocks of cherries coming into production and we are excited to see some new proprietaries hit the market in real volume this year,” Cameron said. “Also, our standard Rainiers will have a substantial increase in producing acreage. Our Rainiers have had a history of high quality, clean and beautiful fruit in production. We are expecting huge size this year in some of our blocks, so it will truly be a pleasure to sell.”
