Parts of Western Australia's cherry-growing industry are struggling to make ends meet and many growers in the Great Southern region are being forced to leave the game completely due to economic factors, reports abc.net.au.
The latest growers to leave the industry are Mount Barker growers Mark and Alice English. The pair built their 4.8-hectare cherry orchard from scratch more than two decades ago.
Now, they are chaining up their trees and tearing them out, ready to leave the industry for good.
"To see it go full cycle, there is a sense of trepidation as you pull the trees out and you remember planting them," Mr English said.
"But at the end, from a business perspective and common sense, we accept what we are doing."
With the English family leaving the cherry-growing industry, only a handful of growers will remain in the Mount Barker region.
"It's sad because it's not just us," he said.
Further west, near Manjimup, and further north, in the Perth Hills, the industry is faring slightly better, with some growers under contracts with major supermarkets.
Mr English said it was a combination of factors that had made it so difficult for the cherry industry to survive in Western Australia.
"The first one, really at the end of the day, is the profitability of the business," he said.
"Over the years the markets have changed, inputs have increased quite dramatically, particularly wages and salaries. That's life, and it's what happens in business.
"But for us the sale price of the product versus the inputs, it comes to a point of gross margins not worth the effort and risk of running a business such as this."
