This year’s Spanish Picota cherry campaign is set to reach the UK this week, with exporters hoping to build on 2010’s record sales volumes through a consumer-targeted promotional drive.
The campaign will run from mid June until late July, despite a slightly later than usual beginning to the season due to problematic weather conditions in western Spain during the second half of May.
According to the Cereza de Jerte Denomination of Origin Regulatory Council, approximately 2,000 tonnes of Picota cherries will be harvested in the Jerte Valley, in Spain’s Extremadura region, this season.
Spanish government-funded promotional body Foods from Spain will be staging a number of activities during the season to support the campaign, including product tastings in supermarket outlets, information and recipe leaflets, on-pack competitions and advertising at the point-of-sale.
Last year, Picota exporters reported selling record volumes in the British market – in spite of the fruit starting two weeks late. Approximately 6m punnets were sold in five UK retailers during June and July, compared with 4m the previous year.
Pilar Díaz Flores, technical director of the council, said: “In spite of the delay, this year’s crop is generally looking better than last year in terms of volume.”
“The 2010 season was very successful. This was partly due to the continued commitment from UK supermarket chains. We hope that this year will be equally fruitful”.
