BIGFORK — Gov. Greg Gianforte is currently on his annual 56-county tour, and on Wednesday he visited a Flathead Cherry orchard in Bigfork that supplies cherries around the world.
The Flathead Lake Cherry Growers Cooperative in Montana is comprised of 80 growers from across the state who work collectively to deliver cherries worldwide.
With this year's cherry crop expected to be the lowest in 30 years, Gov. Gianforte visited with the co-op members to learn about their operation.
“Agriculture is an important part of our economy whether it’s beef, grain pulse crops or specialty fruits like the cherries here in the Flathead,” Gov. Gianforte said. “It was important to come and meet with the growers and understand more about what they’re doing.”
Even with grants and help from the Department of Agriculture, almost nothing can help with an unpredictable growing season.
Bruce Johnson, the owner of the Buena Vista orchard says a few days of inclement weather affected this year’s crop.
“There are some things that we do not have control over and that’s the weather and the weather was a little hard on us this year in January had a lot of really severely cold weather,” Johnson explained. “It was hard on some of the cherry trees this year and took a lot of the buds so there isn’t many cherries this year.”
Johnson also emphasized how much a down year like this one can have a major impact on Montana’s economy.
“There’s a lot of folks that take their vacations to coincide when our cherries are ripe they’ll drive up here for a few days pick cherries or buy cherries from one of the local stands and that’s part of the tourism part of things.”
Gov. Gianforte will travel to Kalispell on Thursday to visit a fire mitigation project.
