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SANTAQUIN — The fruit trees are in full bloom right now, and as local fruit growers watch the weather with an impending storm, they are also watching closely the imports of tart cherries coming from overseas countries.
“As we go into May and things start to warm up, everything will start to grow; and the cherries will just come right out of these blossoms,” said Curtis Rowley.
Rowley and his brothers have hundreds of fruit trees in Santaquin, including one of their biggest crops: tart cherries, often used in health foods such as granola bars or trail mix.
But suddenly, the U.S. tart cherry market is being flooded by less expensive fruit imported from Turkey.
“Just trying to find a way to sell them. Right now in the United States, there is a large surplus of tart cherries,” Rowley said.
So local Utah growers have joined with tart cherry producers in Michigan to petition the U.S. Department of Commerce for some relief from the foreign imports — a move supported by the Utah Farm Bureau.
“Foreign competition entering our marketplace with artificially-low pricing is undercutting our local farmers," said Ron Gibson, the organization’s president. "There comes a point where our farmers can’t continue to absorb these losses from unfair competition.”
It’s support these local growers say they need.
“We want to stop other countries from dumping tart cherries into the U.S., we want them to play with the same rules we are playing with, and then it comes back to the best marketing and who is the best at doing what,” he said.
