State Cherry Exports to Japan Get Boost

California cherry producers could boost their exports to Japan by more than $3 million a year, now that the Japanese government has agreed to remove a key trade barrier against the fruit, the state World Trade Commission says.

Japanese officials agreed last week to begin phasing out a restriction on when shipments of California cherries can be accepted. Until now, Japan allowed fresh cherries to be imported only after July 1, effectively keeping out the California crop, whose brief harvest peaks in late May and early June.

Beginning next year, Japan will accept California cherries as early as May 25, and by 1992, all entry date restrictions will be eliminated.

“The agreement gives the cherry industry a tremendous opportunity in a lucrative market,” said Anne Burton, an agricultural specialist with California’s World Trade Commission. “Cherries are just one of many California specialty crops facing unfair foreign trade barriers.

This agreement should give us the opportunity to move forward and encourage the removal by the Japanese of barriers to many other fruits and vegetables.”

California is the nation’s fourth-largest producer of sweet cherries. With sales of $24.6 million last year, cherries ranked 50th among California’s 250 crops, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture. The state’s producers have estimated potential sales to Japan at $3.3 million annually, or roughly 200,000 boxes.

The agreement comes three years after the World Trade Commission brought officials of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries together to negotiate a change in the import restriction, which was intended to protect Japanese cherry producers. Until now, U.S. cherry farmers in the Northwest have been the biggest U.S. exporters to Japan.