The cherry bloom has started earlier in the early production area of Fraga, where it is already clear that the trees will yield a high volume of fruit.
"For now, every factor points to a perfect cherry campaign," states Carlos Llambrich, manager of Llamfruit, Fraga. "There will be significant volumes of the early and extra-early varieties, and very likely also of the later ones," he added.
The producer and exporter is very optimistic ahead of the 2017 cherry season, which will start in late April with the harvest of the extra-early varieties.
"We are hoping that there won't be any impact from rainfall or hailstorms this year, since the previous campaign was disastrous due to the weather adversities, which took a severe toll on the quality," he recalls. "The prices were very interesting, but there was very little availability of quality fruit because of issues such as cracking and botrytis."
"This year our production will double compared to the previous campaign, with a total of 50 hectares. We have already planted 10 hectares and we expect to reach 100 hectares devoted solely to cherries in the coming years," points out Carlos Llambrich.