AN ECONOMIC ASSESSMENT OF SWEET CHERRIES Executive Summary The sweet cherry is a drupe or stone fruit that belongs to the genus Prunus, along with almonds, peaches, plums, and apricots. Both sweet and sour (or tart) cherries belong to the same family, Rosaceae, but different species; Avium is the sweet cherry species and Cerasus is the sour species. Most U.S. sweet cherries are grown in the West. Washington and California supply mainly dark, sweet Bing cherries intended for fresh use, while Oregon and Michigan provide light-colored Royal Ann (Napoleon) cherries for the maraschino process. Overall, there are more than 500 sweet cherry cultivars, but less than 20 are currently commercially important in the United States. Production of sweet cherries in the nine states reported by USDA (Washington, Oregon, California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Montana, Idaho, and Utah) has fluctuated during the last 10 years from 430 million pounds in 1987 to only 265 million pounds in 1985. Washington has been the leading producer, with an average 154.5 million pounds in 1991-94, followed by Oregon (84 million pounds), California (69 million pounds), and Michigan (47 million pounds). Acreage has risen since the mid-1980's in California and Washington, but has declined in Michigan and Oregon. About half of the U.S. sweet cherry crop is typically used fresh and half is processed. Cherries may be processed that cannot be effectively marketed during the short harvest season, or that are undersized and/or blemished and do not meet fresh-grade standards. About 70 percent of the sweet cherries processed in 1991-94 were brined, about 10 percent were canned, and nearly 20 percent were frozen, dried, or used for juice. Brining is the first step in the maraschino process. Michigan and Oregon accounted for 64 percent of U.S. brined cherries during 1991-94. Most premium-quality handpicked cherries with the stems attached (used in making cocktail-style maraschino cherries) are produced in Oregon. Michigan produces the smaller, stemless maraschino cherries that are used in fruit cocktail. These cherries are likely to have been machine harvested. Sweet cherries have a relatively short season and the marketing periods for the major producing regions only partly overlap. Prices, consequently, are more closely related to the size of supplies from individual areas than to national output. Grower prices (all sweet cherries) in Oregon and Michigan, where the bulk of production goes for processing, generally average lower than in California and Washington. All commercial sweet cherry trees are propagated vegetatively. None are grown from seed. Commercial sweet cherry orchards are planted with nursery trees produced by "budding" a selected scion onto the desired rootstock. The rootstock provides the lower trunk and root system, while the scion forms the top of the tree. Budding consists of inserting a dormant bud of the desired sweet cherry variety into a t-shaped slit in the bark of a year-old seedling just above ground level. When the bud grows, the branches associated with the rootstock seedling are cut off and the bud becomes the new tree. Pollination is required to ensure adequate fruit set. Nearly all sweet cherry cultivars are completely self-incompatible (cannot be fertilized by the pollen of the same cultivar), and some groups of cultivars are cross-incompatible, such as Bing, Lambert and Napoleon (Royal Ann). Carefully-chosen varieties are planted in orchards mainly for pollination purposes. Honeybees are the main pollinating agent for sweet cherries. Growers normally rent hives of bees and place them in the orchards during bloom. Cherry trees require extensive pruning and training to produce a limb/branch configuration that will maximize productivity. Pruning and training cherry trees is labor intensive. Some pruning is needed annually on all trees to maintain a good supply of fruiting wood. Most sweet cherry trees in the western U.S. are irrigated. Irrigation is beneficial to sweet cherry trees during dry spells, but too much water is detrimental to the roots. Under-the-tree sprinklers (drip and trickle systems) are typically used to avoid rain-cracking and disease hazards that can accompany overhead systems that wet the fruit. Sweet cherry trees begin to bear fruit 4-5 years after planting and reach peak production after 8-10 years. Sweet cherry varieties mature at about the same time each year. Some varieties in California are ready for harvest in mid-April and the rest by early May. Harvesting begins in Oregon and Washington in early June, about 65 days after full bloom. Most of Michigan's sweet cherries are harvested in July. One of the most common production perils affecting sweet cherries is rain near harvest-time, which causes "rain cracking." Cracked cherries are susceptible to fungal infection and the fruit is not marketable. Sweet cherries are most susceptible to cracking during and just prior to harvest. Rain drops striking mature cherries will frequently cause the skin to split or crack. Cracking results from direct absorption of water through the fruit skin, not from excess soil moisture absorbed through the roots Freezing temperatures are another common peril. Sweet cherry buds are especially susceptible to spring frosts during a period of time before the blossoms are fully open. The fruit are also subject to disease infestations, as well as insect, bird, and rodent abuse. Our assessment is that there would be widespread participation among sweet cherry growers in the catastrophic insurance plan because of the low cost of participation relative to the potential benefits. There is, however, likely to be much less participation in the buy-up plans than in the catastrophic insurance. Participation in additional insurance coverage is likely to be greatest in Michigan, where growers face frequent losses due to rain cracking and to frosts and freezes. Participation in buy-up insurance in Oregon and Washington is likely to be about the same as, or may slightly exceed, participation for apple insurance in those states. It is our assessment that participation in a sweet cherry insurance policy would be lowest among growers in California.