Chelan Fresh’s Mac Riggan Talks Retail Opportunities of This Year’s Extended Cherry Season

CHELAN, WA – Washington cherries are far from finished for the summer. I recently connected with Mac Riggan, Director of Marketing for Chelan Fresh, who impressed upon me that this late-running season is a big boon to retail sales.

“Chelan Fresh continues harvesting high-quality, large-sized cherries for domestic retail/wholesale business,” Mac says, explaining that product is larger than usual and exceeding the expectations of domestic customers. “We plan to pack Dark Sweet cherries through the week of August 20, which is a fairly extended season from what we are used to seeing.”

Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics.
(Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

The takeaway for retailers? Reinvigorate the back half of the season and keep cherry displays prominent and well-positioned. Those that sell to the end can reportedly see upward of $1.7 million in additional cherry sales per 100 stores over those who wrap their cherry promos early, according to Northwest Cherry Growers (NWCG) and Nielsen data.

“These are some of the best cherries we have ever had,” Mac tells me. “Fruit size, firmness, and sugars are exceptional this season and offer retailers a great opportunity to capture late-season dollars while driving store traffic and larger basket sizes.”

To do so, Chelan notes that top-earning retailers increase the number and spread of cherry SKUs over their low-earning ROM as the cherry season progresses. When and where the display quality is best, a surge in purchases is producing a sales lift of up to 8 percent for the buy-side, per Nielsen and NWCG.

It’s not over until it’s over, especially when it comes to a premium category like fresh cherries.

The News in Charts is a collection of stories from the industry complemented by charts from Agronometrics to help better tell their story.

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