In Franconian Switzerland, the cherry harvest has kicked off. Some early varieties have already been already harvested, says Christof Vogel, manager of the fruit growing research facility of the county of Forchheim in Hiltpolstein.
The main varieties will commence in the next couple of days. Franconian Switzerland is considered one of the biggest continuous cultivation areas for cherries in all of Europe, with more than 200,000 cherry trees on 2,500 hectares.
It is not clear yet how much damage was done by the cold weather, snow and frost in the spring, explains Vogel. "We have producers with a full harvest and some who have nothing at all." This is due to the different locations of the fruit trees. Especially in valley basins the cold stayed for longer and damaged the trees.
Vogel is not able to make a prediction of the prices of this year either. Low harvests used to equal higher prices, today retailers will simply buy from out of the country - mostly from Turkey - to meet their demands.
Franconian Switzerland witnesses a strong fluctuation of the volumes every year, as their highly dependent on the weather: In bad years, producers will only harvest about 1,000 tons of sweet cherries, in good years it can be up to 8,000 tons.
For the following days, fruit producers hope for sunny and dry weather. "We are hoping that it will not rain for days," says Vogel. "One little thunderstorm with rain doesn't harm the cherries, but constant rain will. The weather forecast though has cherry pickers' hopes up. Upper Franconia expects predominantly fine weather.
Source: Proplanta