Long cherry season for Primavera

Shippers and consumers both get excited for the California cherry season. Primavera Marketing Inc. handles cherries from all growing regions, which gives it an early start and long season.

The Linden, Calif.-based company is a grower-shipper of California cherries, apples and walnuts.

“Cherries are our biggest crop. Plus, we have 33 years’ experience in selling cherries,” said Rich Sambado, president at Primavera Marketing. “The family is a big grower. We also have growers throughout the state, so the season is long for us.”

This season will start earlier than average and ramp up quickly, as usual.

“The best news is that we’re early. We’ll definitely be picking on April 25,” Sambado said. “Volume will ramp up around May 4, then May 11 through the end of May will be our biggest weeks.”

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

It’s too early to say what the volume will be this year. Sambado said the company could struggle to produce 7.5 million boxes. This year’s crop will have much better size though, assuming good weather, he said.

The weather is always a challenge for California cherries. It’s not the most challenging this year so far, though.

“The most challenging aspect of business right now is the cost of labor, availability of labor and the efficiency of labor. Labor is our biggest cost,” Sambado said.

To cope with that challenge, the company has made significant investments over the last eight to 10 years in optical sorting technology. It is also improving automation in other parts of its packing operations.

Sambado spoke about how retailers can most effectively promote cherries.

“Buy quality, display big and promote as often as you can. It’s possible to promote California cherries six weeks long,” he said

Sambado has reason to be optimistic.

“Cherries are one of the few seasonal fresh produce items left,” Sambado said. “There’s a lot of excitement for the season, especially for California 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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