WA biz breaks its record for cherry drying at 2x weight of Statue of Liberty

Chukar Cherries has dehydrated more than 700,000 pounds of Northwest cherries from the 2025 growing season – the equivalent in weight to about two and a half Statues of Liberty.

The Prosser food processor turns locally grown cherries into chocolately treats and other goodies.

Chukar Cherry products are popular at Seattle’s Pike Place Market, groceries, airport kiosks and elsewhere, including its Prosser headquarters’ store at 320 Wine Country Road.

Its 2025 run was the largest in the 27-year history of the family-owned company, which credited recent investments in new processing equipment as well as a banner crop, for the big numbers.

To celebrate, Chukar and Northwest Cherries are giving away a cherry-packed gift package. To enter, comment on its Facebook page by 11:49 p.m., Aug. 28. The winner will be chosen at random and will be announced Aug. 29.

Chukar said its 2025 season benefitted the addition of a high-tech cherry sizer as well as de-stemming equipment and a third large-scale dehydrators, which it uses to ready fresh cherries for processing.

Tim Oten, general manager, said the industrial sizer was a game changer.

“Not only could fruit be sorted much faster and in larger quantities daily, but we were able to narrow down drying times to match the size of the cherry — down to the millimeter,” he said in an announcement.

The Measure of Things, a website that provides cheeky comparisons to put large numbers in context, shows the Statue of Liberty weighs about 310,000 pounds, without its base.

Washington is the nation’s leading grower of sweet cherries. The 2025 crop was about 10% ahead of 2024, with about 21 million 20-pound boxes.

Cherries are typically harvested from early June to mid-August.

This story was originally published August 14, 2025 at 3:47 PM.