The South American cherry season is starting two weeks later than usual in the UK this year and hail and rain continue to threaten availability.

The earliest region to come on stream is traditionally Mendoza in Argentina, but this year weather damage has meant almost no fruit has come out of the region. Consequently importers have started air freighting supplies only this week from Chile. "We are not handling any Argentinean fruit now, but we hope by mid-December to have sea freight fruit and maybe air freight from the later region of Trelew in the next 10 days," said one handler.

In addition, importers report heavy rainfall and hail since last weekend have been hampering harvesting in Chile in the early region of Rancagua. Growers cannot harvest in these conditions and there is also the risk of fruit cracking or of skins being damaged or weakened by rainfall as well as hail.

Argentina traditionally has the edge over Chile in the pre-Christmas market because of its ability to get sea-freight sendings away to Europe earlier. This is due to vessel availability as well as production coming on stream earlier. Exporters aim to get the first sea-freight fruit on the water for arrival to market by December 10-12, but that is looking difficult this year because of the prevailing weather conditions.

The main variety out of both countries is Bing and the season from Chile is expected to run until the end of January.

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