A lot of this product is exported and we've developed enough markets for this product to allow processors to pay a little extra so we can afford to have them hand harvested. So we're developing a lot of jobs creating a lot of income for people who come in and pick. In some years, it is the pits. After several good years earlier this decade, times have been tough the past five years. More specifically, the weather has been uncooperative.
Cherries are perhaps more susceptible to the whim of mother nature than other crops.
But it runs in cycles. For every bad year, there is usually a good year. Indeed, production has dropped sharply from a high of some 52,000 tons in 1992 to recent annual figures approaching half that amount. The sweet cherry crop of 1996 was not necessarily one to remember. The killing frost did not come until the cherries had already started blooming.