Farmers in Israel’s Upper Galilee region have reported a 100 per cent increase in cherry yields this season, despite last summer’s hostilities with Lebanon and damages incurred to agricultural crops in the northern region close to the border.

Growers say this year’s yield comes to 15 tonnes in the plantations in Metulla, a village near the border with Lebanon, double the quantity registered last year. Due to larger yields, the retail price of cherries has fallen from NIS50 (£6.27) a kilo last year to NIS15 a kilo this season.

Chaim Hod, a grower from Metulla, says the quality of this year’s cherry crop “is by far the highest we had owing to a long, cold season”. Harvesting started two weeks ago and is expected to last until August, with the country’s total yield estimated to reach some 3,500 tonnes.

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