It is cherry time at the PLUS supermarkets once again. To kick off the season, cherry cultivator Theo Vernooy from Cothen, the Netherlands, presented a basket of GIJS cherries to employees of the PLUS Service office. The Vernooy family has been in the business for multiple generations. Theo Vernooy is one of five cherry cultivators working for GIJS. His cherry orchard is on the Kromme Rijn (Crooked Rhine), this area has been used for the cultivation of cherries since the 17th century.
Theo and his son Erik present a basket of cherries to Martin Pietersma, of PLUS supermarkets
“The start of the season has just been difficult. We started the cherries about three weeks ago now, and it has still not been cherry weather. It is now finally starting to go in the right direction, and yesterday we saw the sun rise for the first time. It had been a while since we last saw that,” says Vernooy. “Because of the bad weather we lost all three hectares of our outdoor cultivation. This just shows that it is almost impossible to cultivate cherries without a covering.”
“Fortunately, we still have plenty of cherries under the coverings, ten hectares. The season is not yet lost. We have plenty of beautiful cherries of good strains, which will last us for the coming five weeks. The harvest looks fine, despite the weather not being ideal during the flowering season.The cherry cultivation in Germany and Belgium was also rather upset. If we get decent weather now, we might have an advantage for price fixings,” Vernooy continues.
There have been few shifts regarding strains this year. “We are trying very hard to find good strains for the early cherry weeks. We have a thing or two in the pipeline, but we will definitely not get rid off our existing strains,” says Vernooy. His cherries, and those of other GIJS cultivators, will be available from all PLUS supermarkets from 10 July. The season officially lasts from the start of July until the end of August. “Demand is really starting to erupt now. Let us hope summer will now definitely start,” Vernooy concludes.
Fruitteeltbedrijf Vernooy
Theo en Martine Vernooy
Groenewoudseweg 18
3945 BC COTHEN