I guess, Mr. Chairman, there are probably three major reasons why. There's the economics, obviously. There's been a dramatic overplanting of cherries in the Pacific Northwest of the States and in eastern Europe. Europe has been a very lucrative market for the export part of our industry. That industry has really grown. In agriculture, when there's somebody making money, everybody else overplants it. That's a fact of life.
It was a perfect storm, because they started planting about eight to ten years ago in the Pacific Northwest, and there's been severe frost the last two winters. Basically, those trees stayed in the ground and continued to grow, and their ability to bear more fruit increased. However, they didn't bear fruit because of the winter and spring frost. So all of a sudden we had all of this extra acreage hit, with a massive crop, as opposed to crops slowly coming onto market and people getting ready for them. We saw that.
And then, of course, the high dollar has had an absolutely huge effect on us. When I started exporting cherries, all of my profit was from the 35% exchange rate I had. We broke even on the actual dollars and then my wife and I lived on the 35% premium on the exchange rate. It was wonderful to take a $50,000 cheque to the bank and come back with $70,000 or $80,000. It was just like a big party, and it definitely was. So there was that.
The other thing I think we want from the food safety and “buy local” momentum going on right now is that little bit more of a premium we think Canadians are ready to pay for Canadian-raised and produced fruit.
The combination of all of those things makes us very anxious to continue to preserve this, and in fact to expand in Canada. So those are the reasons for the timing: it's a matter of buying local, the carbon credits, and the climate change momentum. If we can sell closer to home and make money that way, we think that's the way to go from a marketing perspective.