Despite the delay in the start of the campaign, the forecasts are very optimistic. From the second half of May to the beginning of August, around 21 million kilos are expected to be harvested. Of these, 5 to 6 million will be Picota cherries.
The first cherries to arrive to the Association of Cooperatives will be the California 1 varieties, which are the first to ripen, and the last, between mid-July and August, will be the Picota cherries.
For this season, the Association of Cooperatives of the Jerte Valley has improved its equipment. It has acquired a new optical sorting machine, which will allow them to increase and considerably optimise its production capacity, sorting the fruit with real-time and automatic triage, which also sorts the fruit by size. The Association already had three such machines, and with this new acquisition, its sorting capacity will increase by 90,000 kg/day, reaching 500,000 kg/day.
In addition to this investment in the production lines, the Association of Cooperatives has also carried out a significant expansion of the facilities, which will also contribute to this production growth. Specifically, the cooling chamber has been improved with two unloading docks, a refrigerated reception area and three hydro-cooling tracks. The area devoted to container storage and logistics has also been expanded.
Jerte cherries are one of the most anticipated fruits of the season. They are appreciated not just for their incomparable flavour and the reputation of the brand, but also for the unique cultivation techniques used to grow them. Jerte cherries are cultivated in small plots, in a traditional way, and in many cases, by families, with environmental conditions that are both ideal and sustainable. In the case of the Jerte Valley, the fact that the fruit is grown in small farms has not affected its marketing capacity; quite the opposite. The cooperative association of producers has turned the area into a leading producer of cherries at the European level.