If there is still a bona fide winner out there as far as consumers, retailers, importers and growers are concerned, it must be cherries.

On a trip to Washington State to wonder at the fruit hanging thickly from the trees, I was told that - casting aside fears of frost at blossom time or rain and wind damage up to the point of picking - it was probably the easiest fruit to sell.

This bold assertion still seems to hold good in the UK. Cherries have always enjoyed that special impulse-purchase factor which remains today and is still at a level that few other fruit categories have ever experienced.

Another element, certainly as far as UK sourcing is concerned, is seasonality. While the calendar is being closed up every year there is still not enough to go round, and sometimes the shelves are naturally bare.

For those readers who did not catch a glimpse of the Daily Mail (or other national dailies) it was this aspect that excited the feature writer who “discovered” a Spanish grower producing fruit under heated glass in late March.

That the fruit was commanding around £19 a kilo was seized upon by some press, but surely the fact that, on this occasion at least, the supply and demand equation can still play its part in our industry should be applauded. While so many categories have fallen into the commodity trap, cherries have thus far retained their caché.

Manipulating nature and its seasons is nothing new. Early and late varieties, the use of plastic sheeting, hot water pipes, glasshouses and many more things besides, are trusted tools of the industry and a tribute to the science that underpins and drives it. But what makes the cherry story so intriguing is that previous season-lengthening developments have been mainly confined to vegetables and salads.

There are exceptions of course. I’ve reported on Norwegian cherry growers draping their orchards high above the fjords with plastic. Kiwifruit and persimmon producers use netted structures for other reasons less associated with conserving heat.

I also seem to remember reporting on Israeli growers moving their stonefruit trees in pots up onto higher ground to maximise their dormancy period.

There was a time - even before climate change became a talking point - when a large English glasshouse producer spoke of the viability of using his nursery to produce stonefruit crops in commercial volumes. As we know, this is not as far-fetched as it may have seemed, especially when we remember the capabilities of our Victorian forebears.

But, distinct from bushes, canes and vines - Guernsey, for instance, briefly grew kiwifruit under glass - fruit trees still stand alone and take whatever weather comes their way.

Outdoor crops using thermal heat generated nearer the Polar ice cap, or in the future space stations high above the earth, are at present products of a different world of minds.

The question is whether by following the path of evolution to its natural extent and beyond will the example of the Spanish cherries become a profitable norm? Or once it becomes the norm, will these products too become commoditised?

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