CMI Offers Behind the Scenes Look at McDougall and Sons Baker Flats Cherry Facility

At the peak of cherry production last season, CMI cautiously navigated a drone through the new McDougall and Sons Baker Flats facility capturing close up action of the organized chaos that is cherry packing. CMI's video of the flyover offers an incredible view of cherries that only an aerial drone camera can capture, say company officials.

State of the art cherry packing is spectacular to see, says Steve Lutz, vice president of marketing for CMI. “It’s such a fast and furious process and we knew customers and consumers would enjoy seeing this unique behind the scenes footage,” he says. “We pushed the drone to get as close to the action as possible showing our magnificent cherry packing operation, from giant waterslides to gleaming stainless machinery and state of the art technology.”

The capabilities of the new McDougall cherry facility are significant, officials add. The new plant processes 15 tons of cherries per hour with technological improvements superseding past production by 50 percent. “Our new Red and Rainier cherry lines exceeded every expectation last season and we’re anticipating even greaterperformance when we launch the 2016 season next week,” says Bryon McDougall, operations manager for the McDougall and Sons facility. “The sizing accuracy and defect sorting is raising the bar on quality and is a true testament to the effectiveness of this new sorting and packing technology. 

“Using this technology to raise the bar on quality means less shelf shrink for retailers and a better product for consumers to take home,” McDougall adds.

The new cherry facility is the third in a series of packing technology improvements by CMI affiliated packing facilities. Prior to last season, Double Diamond in Quincy and Columbia Fruit Packers in Wenatchee, Wash., added new cherry sorting and packing technology to their operations.

The scale of the new 80,000 square foot Baker Flats facility requires a virtual army of pickers to keep supplies of freshly picked cherries abundantly available to run across the production line. Because of the delicate nature of the fruit, all fresh cherries are hand-harvested. A trained and experienced crew of 30 pickers can harvest about one ton of fresh cherries per hour. With the new facility packing cherries across a double shift, thousands of pickers are required just to have sufficient fruit to keep the line running.

“Our goal was to use technology that would allow us to efficiently deliver the best and most consistent quality to our customers”, says McDougall. “We feel we’ve achieved that goal and will continue to push to exceed it.”

CMI’s Northwest cherries will be shipping June 1, with sales peaking mid June through early July.