Oregon Public Broadcasting

The Northwest cherry crop is smaller this year, about half what it was last year. Still, farmers say the quality of the sweet orbs is excellent, and cherries should be available longer than usual this year. Richland Correspondent Anna King reports.

The sweet cherries are here!

But if you love the pitted wonders remember there are only about 12 million boxes of them coming out of Washington farms this year.

It was 21 million boxes last year.

B.J. Thurlby is the head of the Washington State Fruit Commission. He says those consumers on the hunt for giant-sized cherries should be in luck this summer.

He says fruit companies are shipping fewer of their larger cherries to Asian countries. That means more for the high-end grocery stores in the Northwest.

B.J. Thurlby: "There's been a big shift in that over the last 10 years. What we see is that the retailers that are out there have found that they can sell more, larger cherries."

One other difference this year: cherries aren't ripening all at the same time. That means the sweet fruit will be around until mid-August.