In this installment of the ‘In Charts' series, Cristian Crespo of Agronometrics illustrates how the U.S. market is evolving. Each week the series looks at a different horticultural commodity, focusing on a specific origin or topic visualizing the market factors that are driving change.

The southern hemisphere cherry season has begun in the U.S., and so in this article we will look at what has been taking place in the market.

As can be seen in the chart below, the U.S. market is supplied by various origins. Washington state is the biggest supplier, followed by California, Oregon and Chile.

Historical volumes of cherries in the U.S. market, by origin

(Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics. Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

The cherry season in the U.S. is concentrated in a few weeks, as can be seen below. The chart also shows that the total volumes in the market have been rising slightly over the years.

Cherry volumes in the U.S. market, by origin

(Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics. Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

Between November and January, the U.S. cherry market is supplied mainly by Chile, New Zealand and Argentina. This follows on the local supplies from Washington, California, Oregon, Idaho and Canada from May to September. The market is heavily supplied from weeks 20 to 30. 

Cherry volumes in the U.S. market, by origin

(Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics. Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

Speaking about the season that starts in November, this year the volumes from Chile have been their lowest in five years. This is likely in part due to the occasional paralyzation of the Port of San Antonio amid the social unrest in the country.

Historical volume of Chilean cherries in the U.S. market

(Source: USDA Market News via Agronometrics. Agronometrics users can view this chart with live updates here)

The Chilean Cherry Committee is projecting a 15% rise in volumes this season to 209,000 metric tons (MT), with a peak in weeks 51 and 52.

In our ‘In Charts’ series, we work to tell some of the stories that are moving the industry. Feel free to take a look at the other articles by clicking here.

You can keep track of the markets daily through Agronometrics, a data visualization tool built to help the industry make sense of the huge amounts of data that professionals need to access to make informed decisions. If you found the information and the charts from this article useful, feel free to visit us at www.agronometrics.com where you can easily access these same graphs, or explore the other 20 fruits we currently track.