A Tasmanian cherry grower says overall it was another good season for the company over summer, despite an isolated weather event that did reduce volumes.
David Allanson, Farm Manager of Lennonville Orchards Pty Ltd, which produces Black Devil Tasmanian Cherries, explains that production could have been higher if not for the unfavourable conditions.
"Our season was fantastic apart from a rain event halfway through the season," he said. "We had about 35 millimetres in about 20 hours, and we lost around 30 tonnes due to cherry splitting. If that didn't happen, we would have had a very large harvest, however, we still picked around 90 tonnes. Unfortunately, rain is always our greatest threat during the picking season, with so much rain in such a short amount of time you can't do too much about it. Aside from that, the fruit was excellent with extremely high sugar content achieved by the extended ripening times due to the mild temperatures over summer."
The orchard is located on Bruny Island, in southern Tasmania. There are four orchards that total 14 hectares, and produce around 100 tonnes of cherries a year across a number of varieties; including Van, Lapin, Sylvia, Sweet Georgia, Kordia, Regina and Sweetheart as well as an exclusive 'Black Devil' variety, which is a hybrid with the Van cherry. Sweet Georgia takes up around 60 per cent of production, with two of the four orchards dedicated to that variety.
"We have always been a boutique cherry farm," Mr Allanson said. "The very well-known Black Devil boxes that we supply with our logo on them only have our larger sized fruit in them, we don't pack 
anything in it that is sized under 28 millimetres. So, with the 32+mm and 30-32mm, we have them packaged into two-kilo boxes, and the 28-30mm are available in five-kilo boxes. Everything smaller is packed into generic Tasmanian cherry boxes, as our brand has always been associated with big cherries. We are one of the few farms left that colour pick during harvest, we will pick in the same orchards two or even three times to get fruit at the perfect time based on colour and size. We still use mechanical size grading and our packing shed manager Geoff Bain that has overseen quality control for almost 20 years, leads a large team of people in our packing shed to grade and sort cherries by hand, as opposed to an optical grader. Our hard-working incredible staff, Ian, Petra, Greta, Geoff and myself maintain extremely high standards throughout the year from flowering to harvest that ensures the cherries in every box that leave our farm is always a consistent colour, size and quality."
Black Devil Cherries have an exclusive wholesaler partnership with Fresh Produce Group at the Sydney Markets. Business Manager Wholesale, Brendon Lai, coordinates the distribution of the cherries both across Australia and internationally. Nearly all the fruit is sold in Australia, and most of the supply stays on the domestic market due to the fantastic prices achieved by a 'cult-like' following of customers of the brand. This season only a very small volume was exported to Vietnam.
"Domestic demand is always strong because everyone that is familiar with the Black Devil brand is absolutely crazy about cherries," Mr Allanson said. "When our fruit is shipped to Sydney markets it is usually sold before it even hits their sales floor. Chinese New Year is always huge with our large base of Chinese customers, which drives a lot of sales. Everyone loves cherries, they are special to have on your Christmas table and share with family over the holiday season - if you are fortunate enough to get your hands on a box of our amazing cherries!"
For more information
David Allanson
Lennonville Orchards
Phone: +61 3 6260 6292
www.facebook.com/Blackdevilcherries