"The Spring weather affected the bloom period on some varieties, which has resulted in a mixed fruit set by variety," explains Matt Foster, West Growers Ltd. "The July temperature peak was very hard to deal with, but the high light levels this year have resulted in some exceptional quality fruit, particularly in our Kordia and Regina crops. Size has also been large and customers have responded very positively."
Demand for cherries has been strong this season because availability throughout the country has been poor, with cherry volumes 50% lower than last year, but the sizing was up.
There’s no real competition in the UK from imported cherries, except early on in July with some Spanish and Italian fruit.
Sweetheart is being harvested at the moment, which is the last variety of the season.
Matt goes on to say that the company has further enhanced their offer to customers by investing in a STAS cherry grader, currently hosted by highly automated fruit packer Ackio.
Ackio has packed all of West Growers’ cherry crop this season on a line that, with the addition of a STAS grader, is now the most advanced of its kind in Europe. It rinses the fruit before a hydraulic separator uses a vortex motion to lift and untangle it. Then the STAS grader rotates and photographs each cherry from nine different angles to assess quality and size the batch as it goes through the line.
"Not only has this allowed customers to specify any number and combination of criteria but it’s also resulted in a higher yield since it’s removed the temptation for hand packers to be over scrupulous, which can result in unnecessary waste. It’s allowed us to push late into the season too, when supply is on the edge of quality—we know our grader will pass only the best cherries," concludes Matt.
For more information:
Gemma Bessant
Wellpak (UK) Ltd
Tel: +44 (0)7779 247508
Email: gbessant@wellpak.co.uk
www.wellpak.co.uk