July 14, 2008
Tiny Fruit Fly Big Problem
Cherry Pest Causes Shipper to Lose California Shipments
By Dan Wheat, Wenatchee World staff writer
WENATCHEE — A Washington fruit company has been banned from shipping cherries to California because of cherry fruit fly, according to a state Department of Agriculture official.
It's a "significant problem" for that shipper, says Ken Shank, the department's commodities inspection manager in Wenatchee.
But Bruce Grim, manager of the Northwest Cherry Marketing Association in Wenatchee, said the shipper's problem and increased discoveries of cherry fruit fly this season are "not a major impact" for the industry. He said Northwest shippers have quality cherries to sell but just haven't had the volume they need and likely will produce less than the last forecast of 9 million boxes because of poor spring pollination and frost.
"No shipper likes to lose any market, but there are lots of other places to sell cherries beside California," Grim said.
Shank said regulations prevent him from identifying the shipper, and Grim would not say who it is. Shank said the ban involves cherries from Chelan, Douglas and Grant counties.
State Department of Agriculture inspectors have had eight or nine findings of cherry fruit flies at commercial packing facilities in the state since the start of the cherry season, compared with typical findings of zero to three, Shank said.
When a cherry fruit fly is discovered, the delivery from the grower is fumigated and then shipped, processed as freezer or juice cherries or destroyed, Shank said. The state prohibits the sale of infested fruit and samples every delivery from growers, he said.
Greater inspections, samples of every 20-pound box of cherries, are taken of those sold to California because that state does not have the pest and is trying to keep from getting it, Shank said.
Findings are up probably because pesticide spraying by growers was hampered by a cool, rainy spring, Shank said.
Grim said growers also probably scrimped on sprays because of the lighter crop. He said growers with crops too light to pick would be tempted to forego pre-harvest and post-harvest sprays to reduce economic losses.
But he called that "penny wise and pound foolish" because it will lead to a greater volume of cherry fruit flies next year.
The insect winters over and is the primary pest of sweet cherries in the Pacific Northwest. Dimethoate is the only registered product that can control the larvae inside the fruit, and is most effective when applied within a week after harvest, according to Tim Smith, a Washington State University Extension tree fruit specialist in Wenatchee.
Smith said only two of 10 larvae were found in Wenatchee-area orchards.
Marlene Gurnard, coordinator of the Chelan Douglas County Pest Board, said growers probably aren't as vigilant as they should be on spraying because of the lighter crop. She said growers need to apply post-harvest sprays, and backyard cherry growers should use malathion or hire commercial sprayers.
Meanwhile, the Northwest crop is 50 percent less than the original 16-million- to 17-million-box crop originally anticipated and about 44 percent less than the 14.7-million-box crops of the last two years.
Grim said early Chelan cherries peaked at 10 to 15 percent, short of the final forecast. Bings were 15 to 25 percent short.
Lower elevation harvest is wrapping up and there's a lull before upper elevation harvest cranks up this week, said Kirk Mayer, manager of the Washington Growers Clearing House Association in Wenatchee.
The question, Grim said, is whether a greater volume of later, higher-elevation varieties will be enough to make up the shortfall of the early varieties.
The Yakima-based Washington State Fruit Commission had forecast three million boxes of Northwest cherries sold by the end of June, compared with 6.5 million in 2007. But just 2.3 million boxes had been sold by July 2, Grim said.
As of July 9, 3.5 million boxes had been sold, according to Commission President B.J. Thurlby. He said the crop hopefully will finish between 8 million and 8.4 million boxes.
The light crop is presenting a marketing challenge as shippers and retailers try to find the right price, Grim said. Retail prices of $7 to $9 a pound have been too high to stimulate sales, he said. Prices will come down but will settle out to give growers good returns, he said.
Mayer said there have not been widespread picker shortages that the industry was worried about. There were spot shortages of pickers in the Wenatchee and Yakima districts for early cherries, he said.
Some growers have actually been turning pickers away, having full crews for the first time in years, Mayer said, but others are scrambling to find workers to thin apples and pears.
Picker shortages could become more of a problem as upper-elevation cherry harvest increases, he said.
