British Columbia cherry growers like to think of August as their time to shine, and this month, for the first time in several seasons, they had significant crop volumes to promote.

“There are so many cherries in BC right now, which is a good problem to have,” said Erin Carlson from Carcajou Fruit Co. in Summerland. “There’s this ‘Buy Canadian, Support Canadian’ thing, so it’s been the best year for us to have a big crop.”

The record-breaking crop — no one knows for sure how big since the province has no formal mechanism for crop estimates — is a result of a strong recovery from last year’s cold damage and of new plantings coming in to production. 

“We felt a bit out of shape after a season off, and to jump back into the biggest crop we ever had was quite a wake-up call,” said Sukhpaul Bal, president of the BC Cherry Association. 

Several years ago, the association launched a Canadian Cherry Month campaign, to do more promotions in its domestic market, now that the industry has grown enough to supply it. This year is the first year they’ve really had volume behind it, Bal said.

 “Everybody was just really excited that Canadian cherries were available,” he said. 

But British Columbia’s “comeback crop” coincided with a large Washington crop — over 22 million boxes as of mid-August, which pushed down prices, said grower Deep Brar of Summerland. 

“This was going to be our year, we were hoping,” he said. While the fruit was beautiful, the returns have not been high enough to recover from the back-to-back losses. That said, he’s seeing some mid-August optimism. “Sales are starting to pick up now that volume is dropping off,” Brar said. 

Carlson agreed.

“As the season goes on, there are more and more opportunities,” she said. “It’s Staccato season!” •