Germany is the third-largest importer of fresh cherries in the world after China/Hong Kong and Russia. From 2010 to 2020, between 52 and 77 percent of the cherries consumed in Germany were imported, with the majority of imports originating in other EU member states.
The largest non-EU cherry suppliers are Turkey for sweet cherries and Serbia for sour cherries. German cherry production for marketing year (MY) 2021/22 is difficult to forecast at this point as reliable assessments of the damage caused by heavy rains in mid-July are not yet available. Industry sources reckon the damage could be well over 25 percent. This would lead to a production of 34,000 MT compared to 49,990 MT in MY 2020/21.
Opportunities for fresh U.S. sweet cherries are best in August/September, after the German domestic growing season. Processing of cherries into dried fruit is not common in Germany. The small but growing demand for dried cherries is met with imports.
Image: USDA
German cherry production for MY3 2021/22 is hard to estimate at this point as heavy rains in the week of July 12, 2021, resulted in substantial damage. While reliable assessments of the damage are not yet available, industry sources expect a damage of up to 50 percent depending on the region. Regions with a large share of shielded area (e.g. Lower Saxony/Hamburg and Lake Constance) are less affected than regions with largely unprotected cherry orchards (e.g. Rhineland-Palatinate, Western Baden-Wuerttemberg, and Saxony.) For Germany as a whole, a reduction of at least 25 percent seems realistic, translating into a production of only 34,000 MT.
However, this estimate may well change over the next couple weeks when the harvest progresses and the extent of the damage becomes clearer. Prior to the rains, the German Office of Statistics (destatis) had estimated German cherry harvest at 45,800 MT, thereof 34,700 MT of sweet cherries and 11,100 MT of sour cherries. In 2020, production amounted to 49,990 MT - 36,797 MT of sweet cherries and 13,193 MT of sour cherries.
