Competition from the rest of Europe is especially intense for Greek cherry suppliers this season, with large volumes coming from several producing nations.
“Everyone’s got cherries,” said George Kallitsis of exporter Protofanousi Fruits. “Spain, Italy, eastern Europe – there is a lot of competition at the moment.”
The company has sold nearly double what it managed at this stage last year, according to Kallitsis, with volumes of around 1,500 tonnes.
“This is good, but sales are still not going as expected,” he said. “Sales have increased in almost all countries, especially Russia, the UK and Germany, but we have sold nothing in Italy, where Turkey has dominated the market. And July is likely to be difficult, as northern European countries like Germany and the UK will enter the market.”
Protofanousi was planning to commence shipments of cherries to Asia this season, but those intentions have equally been scuppered.
“Since production is high, individual fruit sizes are smaller,” explained Kallitsis, “and in Asia they like large cherries. Unfortunately, these make up only around 5 per cent of this year’s crop.”
One relatively bright aspect of the season so far has been the weather. 'We had some rain on 11 June, which affected the quality for a couple of days, but since then it has been dry. The colour of the fruit has been a bit dark, so there have been a few complaints. This is mainly down to the big crop, as some growers are not able to harvest quick enough, but the quality has been good.'
