Why are bing sweet cherries so expensive?

[sixdogs]

How come bing cherries are so expensive? Is it the labor of hand picking, a bad crop, wages in the Northwest where I figure they come from or something I don't know about? I can't figure it out. Any ideas?

 

[randy41]

whats the price?

 

[Bird]

I do love Bing cherries, but haven't seen any in the stores yet this year. And the Rainier cherries are even better tasting, but always more expensive than the Bings. Has that changed?

 

[charlz]

I don't know how cherry orchards get a crop at all... as soon as mine start to turn even slightly red the birds, squirrels etc start cleaning them out. If I didn't net a tree I wouldn't get any at all. Even the cheap bird netting gets expensive since it snags and is impossible to fold back up so you have to buy new each season. Year before last I spent $250 on a huge piece of shade cloth (so much for 'free' cherries ) in hopes it will last more than one season. Then last year none of my trees put on enough cherries to justify the time to put the cloth on.

I have thought about planting some Rainier's since their ripe color is about the stage my Bing's can get to before the animals start cleaning them out.

 

[sixdogs]

whats the price?

It's $6 to $8 a pound. I bought 2 lbs for nearly $12 today at Costco and saw some earlier in the week at a grocery store for $7.99 lb.
That's pretty pricey and I noticed the same thing last year. What's up?

 

[jimpen]

I had a friend who worked at cherry picking one year. The commercial places apparently have device they hook to the tree and it shakes them loose into a catcher net. It takes about 10 minutes per tree.

 

[Pete Judd]

Mine are always ripe around the 15th of July. On the east side of the cascades, a few weeks sooner. Not the peak season yet wait a couple of weeks.

 

[charlz]

Mine are usually ready end of June. A valley north of there already has ripe cherries. Supply might be a reason, I know a lot of apple and other fruit orchards have been taken out here because it is cheaper to grow it in China and ship it to the U.S. Prime areas to grow fruit are also prime areas to build houses....

 

[Gale Hawkins]

Because they are so good?

Locally at WM they are $7 currently.

Now I have to go grab a hand full before bedtime.

 

[mriderrw]

I am amazed in what I am hearing. Please do not think the farmer is see that kinda returns. I personally deliver are early cherries to different places in the area and charge between 1.50 to 3.00 a pound. today we were told we could start are Bing harvest Wed. I expect are returns will be somewhere in the middle of that. By the way anybody wants to buy a few tons I will be more then happy to sell you them at that price