Christmas cherry harvests impacted by weather system
Cherry growers in New South Wales are urging us not to look past blemished cherries this Christmas period. The stone fruit is a mainstay for holiday festivities, but recent rain has not only affected supply but also, the look of the fruit.
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00:00 Here in Orange we're probably about three weeks out from hitting our peak.
00:06 So 80 mils at this time of the year is not good.
00:09 We have lost a lot of our early varieties.
00:12 But the 80 mils in two, three weeks time would be devastating.
00:17 Some growing regions are in their peak that are a bit earlier here so it has been devastating
00:21 for them.
00:23 And I mean we're talking hundreds of tonnes of cherries have been dumped in the state
00:27 due to this weather system.
00:31 Yeah look it's all about packouts.
00:33 You get a lot of rain.
00:34 The cherries can't handle being wet all the time.
00:37 It's the type of rain you have.
00:38 So that drizzle hanging around, not clearing is the worst sort of thing for cherries you
00:46 know because they will pop.
00:47 If you get a deep downpour and then it moves on and it stays cool you can get the helicopters
00:52 in.
00:53 We've got helicopters in to dry these trees to save the cherries to ensure that we have
00:57 enough supply.
00:58 But it's about packouts.
01:01 So a lot of cherries when you pick them and you pack them you're going to have maybe only
01:06 a 60% packout.
01:08 So the rest will go out back out to juice fruit.
01:13 So working with that, with the cards that you've been dealt in a season that was otherwise
01:16 going great, you're asking everyone to support the blemished cherry.
01:20 Is it just as good?
01:21 Yeah, look I think what we may find, as I said these later varieties have hung on pretty
01:29 well.
01:30 They're pretty backward.
01:31 These won't be ready until the 18th of December.
01:36 But there may be some fruit that may have some minor ring splits which is just around
01:41 the stalk because the water has sat there in the cherry stalk.
01:46 Now usually that won't get packed but depending on supply that may need to be accepted by
01:52 the consumers.
01:53 It's actually fine, it's just got a little tiny split mark from the water sitting on
01:57 them and I think that sort of fruit may be around this year given all the growing regions
02:01 have experienced a lot of rain this week.
02:05 Yeah, I mean the rain was unwelcome in terms of when it came and also the force in which
02:09 it did.
02:10 Were there any silver linings in that for cherry growers?
02:14 Look, the silver lining is that Chile is also our main competitor, has been experiencing
02:21 a lot of rain so our export demand out of Australia this year is very, very high.
02:27 That's the silver lining for the growers but it becomes a numbers game of your cost to
02:33 throw out half of your cherries actually doubles because it's all hand picked and double the
02:39 cost in packing.
02:40 So it's a numbers game of being financially viable because that will depend on the market
02:46 price at the end of the day and is there a market for the cherry that isn't perfect cherry.
02:51 So they're all the decisions that have to be made along our way to leave it or pick
02:56 it.
02:57 As I said, these ones are okay, we're a bit backward here in orange.
03:02 The areas that are suffering that peak at the moment are having to make those really
03:06 tough decisions as we speak.
03:09 And you alluded to it there, it's not just Australia that you sell to, you've also got
03:12 the markets in Korea, China, Singapore has the supply and some of the blemish fruit.
03:17 Is that going to affect those markets for you?
03:22 Look you really can't risk sending the unperfect cherry export so it will, our pack outs, our
03:29 quality of fruit that we get into the box will determine if it's going to be a domestic
03:32 market or an export market only because the blemish fruit may not travel so well.
03:37 So the demand's high, it's just whether we can now meet the demand given that the rain
03:42 has really affected how much supply there will be.
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