Farmer Tom Eastlake farms in Young, NSW, received a Nuffield Scholarship last year to research cherry field handling, packing techniques and packaging materials. According to Mr Eastlake, improving packaging will drive cherry consumption at home and abroad.
He recently spoke about his research at the Nuffield Australia National Conference.
He farms with wife Janelle on 50ha and the couple manage 15,000 cherry trees, which produce 250-340 tonnes of fruit each year.
Travelling through Europe, the US, Canada and Asia, Mr Eastlake found the proliferation of cherries in top supermarkets and better packaging had led to higher cherry consumption.
“Fruit was presented at every single checkout, in all sections of the stores and not just in fresh produce,” he said.
“And fruit was packed into punnets and bags in front of the consumer to display how fresh the product is ... sales of cherries have increased significantly since their change of approach.”
Mr Eastlake said much needed to be done in Australia at the shop front to give consumers the best possible product.
“Packaging for retail sale has been an area of increased focus in recent times in Australia, due to high levels of shrinkage in the retail environment due to consumers’ desire to handle fruit, sift through it, before they purchase,” he said.
“A move to pre-packaged product has been embraced ... punnets were the first pre-packs and they are still used internationally and here.”
