Spanish late, Washington early on cherry season

The Spanish cherry season has started a couple of days late compared to last year, according to Jon Clark, of Total Cherry, “The very first Spanish fruits such as the Burlat, early Bigi, Earlise, are great for local sale but do not travel too well. This year we are also getting greater amounts of better early varieties, like Rocket, Frisco and Cashmere, so I believe we are in a better position than last year from a Spanish point of view.”

“The very first batches of the Spanish campaign are mostly intended for the local market and we expect to start marketing early Spanish fruit in the UK around 7-8 May. Before that, we’ll work with Californian fruit, which is being picked this week, so we should see the first arrivals this weekend by airfreight, it will be expensive but it is good quality fruit, from there we’ll transition to good quality fruit from Spain.”

Washington fruit will be arriving really early, “A good 14 days ahead of where they would be in a normal season,” according to Clark. “This fruit is typically shipped by air in July with sea arriving in August and September, but this year the summer season will likely finish in late August or early September.”

In terms of demand, he said that at the moment, while the fruit is already desirable, it is still a bit on the expensive side, although, “demand is OK, relative to its value. From the third week of May, with the arrival of large volumes of European fruit, prices will be more within reach for everyone’s pockets.”

Regarding the UK domestic production, Clark says prospects point to a total retail volume of about 3,500 tonnes, which is better than last year, but for a market that demands between 1,000 and 1,500 tonnes a week for 8 weeks, this is still insufficient to cover demand. In any case, it is growing every year and will continue to grow.

For more information:

Jon Clark
Total Cherry
Tel: 0044 1775 717180
Email: jon.clark@totalcherry.co.uk
www.totalcherry.co.uk