ng a real bumper crop of cherries this season and according to Jon Clark from Total Cherry the season is starting a whole month earlier than last year."Last year we started in volume at the end of July, but this year harvesting will start in volume towards the end of June. It is all down to almost perfect weather conditions during the growing season, nice warm days with temperatures dropping by 8-10 degrees at night, which has resulted in a nice fruit size and high sugar (19-20 Brix)," explains Clark.
The weather forecast looks good, although orchards are covered to protect the cherries from rain and hail. Different varieties and growing regions will ensure a smooth supply, also different coverings on orchards enable staggered production times, Clark expects good peak volumes for the whole month of July.
Weather will, as always, impact sales, cherries like a lot of other fruit is an impulse buy, nice displays in the supermarkets and good weather will encourage people to buy. Local produce always sells well, according to Clark sales are up year on year and the cherry industry is looking forward to a very positive season.
"This week there will still be imported cherries on the shelves, a little bit of English fruit will trickle in, then the following weeks will be dominated by British fruit."
As for new varieties, Clark says, "There are one or two new varieties around but mostly it is the traditional ones such as Skeena, Lapin, Reginas, Kordias and Sweethearts. More new varieties have been planted such as Tamara and Cashmere, which are early varieties, but they are not really coming into full production yet."
Later in the season will see the Staccato variety come on to the market in small volumes. Total Cherry have the exclusive production and marketing rights for this variety in the UK and Ireland. "This year we will have a few tons, but the first significant volumes will be seen in the coming years,"explains Clark. He goes on to say that there will be nothing too remarkable this year as far as new cherry varieties, but in the coming years there will be some great new varieties available.
