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September 4, 2000

Cherry glut will limit sale of crop

National marketing order will prevent state growers from selling 43 to 45% of 2000 cherry crop
By CARI NOGA
Record-Eagle staff writer
      Record-Eagle staff writer
      TRAVERSE CITY - Cherry industry officials are expected to make official this week that Michigan growers may sell just over half their 2000 crop this year.
      The expected restriction of 43 to 45 percent of Michigan cherries is the highest since the industry began using a marketing order in 1997.
      "That's very substantial," said Don Gregory, a Suttons Bay grower who also is chairman of the Cherry Industry Administrative Board.
      The board oversees the industry's marketing order, designed to regulate the supply of cherries to the market and thus increase prices. It will meet Friday in Wisconsin to set final restrictions on the 2000 crop, based on the final harvest reports issued Aug. 23.
      The 285 million pound nationwide crop - 199.5 million of which came from Michigan -wound up being 40 million pounds higher than spring estimates. The industry also is contending with a large "carry-in" of cherries not sold last year.
      Typically, various "diversion" options are available to growers during the growing season, if the industry believes the crop will be large enough to warrant restrictions. However, since the larger-than-expected crop materialized at the end of this season, there are fewer choices now.
      "I think it just kind of surprised us." said Jim Bardenhagen, director of Michigan State University Extension's Leelanau County office. "The word in June here was that most processors were going to take everything."
      Now, with cherries harvested, there are only two diversion options available, according to the marketing order: exporting, or storing cherries in reserve pools.
      Exported cherries pay less than the domestic market does, however. And cherries that go into the pools - which are set aside until short crop years - typically don't bring any price at all.
      It's only growers in Michigan and Utah who will see their incomes fall due to the restriction, however. While there are seven cherry-producing states, restriction apply only in those two, since they produce the most.
      There is a move in the industry to place restrictions, when called for, on all states, but that is a few years away from happening.
      For the portion of the crop growers can sell, Gregory said he expects farmers to receive "in the low 20-cents range" per pound.