Heavy rain across south-eastern Australia over the weekend has caused some damage to the region’s cherries, but has missed the bulk of the crop.
The poor weather had growers on edge over the weekend, particularly around the Adelaide Hills and northern Victoria, but damage has not been as heavy as feared, according to industry reports.
With most of the mainland Australian cherry crop picked now, the rain has missed everything but late varieties like Stella or Lapins, Cherry Growers of Australia president Andrew Smith told Asiafruit.
“Most of it’s done, but some of the later varieties will have some damage,” he explained. “There’s certainly no alarm bells ringing, it’s just a bit more damage to work through. There’s still plenty of fruit for the Christmas market.”
The season has so far has been of good quality, Smith said, and volumes have been relatively high.
Export sales have started filling strong buyer enquiries, he said, but on the domestic market sales have not been going quite as well as hoped.
“It’s Christmas week, but there’s not a lot of excitement. Things are moving OK, but it’s not like other Christmases, and that’s across all fruit.”
Tasmanian growers, meanwhile, have begun small early runs of fruit, with the main harvest set for January. Growers in the southern Huon Valley, the hub of Tasmanian cherry production, have also been dealing with some rain over the past week.
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