When Michele Bernocco, an entrepreneur from Ruvo di Puglia (BA) who, over the past few days, uprooted his cherry orchard covering one hectare, it was an act of despair.
"Over 90% of my cherries showed cracking problems, even the fruits that were still green. It has been raining for days in Puglia, or anyway the humidity level is very high, and is compromising production. There is no need to wait for the end of the campaign, it is better to uproot everything and avoid complaints and further expenses. Varieties included Bigarreau and Ferrovia. I've only left 6 plants for my family. It was this year's bad weather, combined with the commercialization problems of the past few years, that led me to take this decision after 20 years spent growing cherries."
"I am sad, but I know I'm not the only one to have taken this decision, especially in the past two years. I filmed the uprooting with my phone and uploaded the video to my social media pages. There has been a lot of controversy and I received some insults, but only those who are from the sector can understand how much money and how much work are behind those trees."
The entrepreneur explains that he will now plant an olive grove on that land. Below is the video of the uprooting operations.