After two years where it was a struggle to supply enough cherries all season long — including a “once in a lifetime freeze” in Washington in 2024 — Washington and California shippers are looking forward to a more normal year in 2025.

“Over the past two seasons we haven’t been able to make the full span of our season from late April to August,” said Brianna Shales, marketing director for Stemilt Growers. “In 2023, the crop from California started historically late and compounded with the Washington crop, and in 2024, our late season cherries were impacted by frost.”

This year, by contrast, Stemilt expects a “full season” starting in late April in California and going well into August and even September in Washington.

“This is exciting because we can be there with cherries for retailers from the beginning of the season to its end,” Shales said.

Stemilt is optimistic about overall volumes in 2025, with more cherries from Washington expected.

California, meanwhile, had a good-sized crop year last year, Shales said, so volumes from there will depend on how many blooms set this spring. But there is definitely good crop potential in the Golden State, and timing has been normal thus far.

Regardless of what the final volume numbers out of California and Washington wind up being, one thing is for certain: the demand will be there to meet it. That’s always true, and it’s even more so this year because of the supply issues the past two seasons.

“Cherries are always in demand, and part of that is because cherries are one of the only true seasonal items left in the produce department,” Shales said.  “We’re expecting there to be pent up demand from export and domestic markets.”

Stemilt will work closely with its retail partners to position fruit at the right time and with qualities that will help build repeat sales.

Organic cherries will continue to be a focus for Stemilt in 2025. Thanks to its high-altitude orchards, Stemilt can pick more organic dark sweet cherries to help its retail partners capture additional organic sales, Shales said.

“Organic cherries are a specialty at Stemilt, and that’s saying something because they’re not the easiest to grow.”

Stemilt also expects to capitalize again on a Rainier cherry growing season that starts earlier and ends later than other growers.

“We have an extended Rainier season to help retailers sell cherries that come from the south after early season cherries are over,” Shales said.

When it comes to packaging, bags are still the predominant method for selling cherries in North America, Shales said. New in packaging from Stemilt is rebranded packing for its premium cherry program, Kyle’s Pick.

“We’re very excited to share the best cherries of the season with retailers,” she said. “We’ve also made some small changes to our packaging for the late season A Half Mile Closer to the Moon cherries.”

Half Mile Closer to the Moon cherries are grown 2,600 ft. above sea level. Stemilt will have more volumes in that program this year, Shales said.

“This season will be all about helping retailers build great displays and utilize our premium packaging programs for Kyle’s Pick, Rainier and A Half Mile Closer to the Moon cherries to drive sales later in the season,” Shales said. “We want to make sure cherries are well presented and retailers have all the tools they need to be success in store and online.”