Five hectares of orchards, 1.50 of which dedicated to cherries. A family passion for fruit cultivation. Nadia Nobili, from Vignola, is a woman entrepreneur who is very young compared to the sector average.
Bigarreau cherries
She is a partner of Apofruit and we visited her company together with agronomist Davide Marconi. The harvesting of Bigarreau is underway until duroni will become available next week. "My father was one of the first in the area to cultivate cherries our way. Nowadays it would be unthinkable, as harvesting needs to be quick. In addition, anti-rain nets have become essential."
Nadia Nobili
"Nets are expensive, but it's impossible to produce high-quality cherries without covering the trees. For some varieties, a little rain before harvesting is enough to spoil the fruit. You need to set aside €50-60,000 per hectare for good covers however, if the price of cherries is good, the investment is repaid in just a few years."
Tie-rods for anti-rain system
"At Apofruit, we help the companies wishing to cover orchards with anti-hail nets. In addition, varieties like Bigarreau sell at a higher price if they are covered, because shelf-life is longer," explains Marconi.
Nadia with technician Davide Marconi from Apofruit in front of a new cherry orchard
Nadia is renewing almost the entire range. The latest orchard is made up of the Sweet Arianna, Gabriel and Lorenz varieties (in this order due to pollination reasons).
Irrigation system, which doubles as an anti-frost system
The frost in April hit us hard, but Nobili managed to save the produce thanks to the anti-frost system. When the probe recorded a "dangerous" temperature one metre above the ground, the anti-frost system activated raising the temperature.
Harvesting below anti-rain nets
"A lot of attention must be paid during fertigation, as good grades are essential. Price depends not only on the organoleptic quality of fruit, but also on grades. I generally irrigate with small amounts of water but rather frequently, as much as every 2-3 days if necessary."
The entrepreneur welcomed the news of the parasitoid against Drosophila suzukii rather positively, although she confirmed that "luckily, in our area, there were no serious attacks."
Quality has been excellent so far. Anti-rain and anti-hail nets work not only against the weather, but also against price drops. As mentioned above, in fact, the produce grown under nets has a better quality in general.
One last thing. According to Nadia, the abolition of vouchers complicated things in labour management. "I will spend more in the end, because I will have to get in touch with Caf to count working days, while I could buy vouchers online."