CMI Joins Stemilt in Marketing Skylar Rae® Cherries

CMI Orchards will join Stemilt Growers as the exclusive marketers of Skylar Rae brand cherries when they become available in mid-June.

Stemilt first marketed the cherries in 2015, and supplies have grown, as well as demand for the bi-colored cherry, marketed as “the sweetest cherry you’ll ever eat.”

Stemilt has done an outstanding job developing the brand and market for Skylar Rae,” Bob Mast, president of CMI Orchards, said in a news release. “We wholeheartedly believe that an alliance between two of the industry’s powerhouse growers, CMI and Stemilt, will amplify the retail merchandising possibilities for this incredible cherry.”

The cherry, discovered by the Toftness family, a grower, in a Sweetheart cherry orchard in Wenatchee, Wash., is the third cherry to receive its own Price Look-Up number.

“Having a unique PLU number gives retailers a spectacular opportunity to capture substantial sales with an additional value-added segment within the category during the highly profitable, short cherry season,” Mast said in the release.

The Skylar Rae brand is owned by the Toftness and Van Hoven families.

“We thought long and hard about the need to add additional sales power and CMI was absolutely the best choice for us to expand our program and leverage the fantastic work and consumer interest already generated by Stemilt,” Troy Toftness said in the release.

Article by The Packer