One of Australia's leading cherry producers says consumers will likely see an abundance of cherries this season, with high volumes forecast.
CherryHill has orchards in Victoria and New South Wales, and Director Stephen Riseborough says harvesting at some sites has been going for about 10 days, moving onto varieties like Sequoia and Royal Dawn over the next week.
"This season's cherry crop is looking really promising,” he said. “We have a medium set crop on most of our blocks. There are a few that are a little lighter cropped, but some are very solid indeed, particularly our late season blocks where we will likely see record volumes this season right through into February. It is reported to be a large crop in NSW also."
The company has orchards in a range of climatic regions including the Yarra Valley, the Murray Valley, the Victorian Highlands as well as Orange in NSW to provide a longer cherry season. The site at Cobram is the first to get underway, with Tolmie Orchard providing late-season fruit until March.
Mr Riseborough says spring could be described as almost perfect growing season possible, and has his fingers crossed that weather conditions remain stable.
"We have a whole range of varieties that span the season length, which is one of the longest supply periods in the Southern Hemisphere," he said. "Volumes should be up on last year significantly, it was one of the lowest yielding crops last year. This year I think there will be likely close to a record industry crop."
Historically much of CherryHill's volume has been domestic focussed, however better new varieties are of high interest in export markets, and Mr Riseborough says as volumes increase over the next few years it will aim at increasing exports.
The company opens the gates to the Wandin orchard throughout the season. This orchard of 30 hectares has gone from fully commercial cherries back in 2010 to almost totally Pick Your Own, which easily makes it the largest "cherry tourism" operation in the country.
"The Pick Your Own cherries at our Wandin orchard are quite unique," Mr Riseborough adds. "Our guests travel from all over Melbourne to visit the orchard, some coming weekly throughout the season. The feedback and reviews that we get are very positive and we are so glad that people can come and see how cherries are grown and pick some for themselves."
But it is not just fresh cherries being produced, with a range of value add products hitting the market recently.
"We have added our own cherry beverages to our offering in the last 12 months and albeit we are starting from small scale with these, they are gaining popularity with our guests and some of our retail and export customers too," Mr Riseborough said.
For more information:Stephen Riseborough
CherryHill Orchards
Phone: +61 3 5964 4235