The total UK cherry market is booming and still showing signs of increasing in value terms at an annual rate of between eight and 10 per cent, estimated Jon Clark, commercial director for Total Cherry, the specialist division of Total Produce.
Clark said: “It equates to about £90 million annually at retail level. Additional plantings throughout the world indicate that more fruit will become available for consumers, including many new varieties which are larger and sweeter.”
Most of these new cultivars are dark red varieties accounting for about 95 per cent of sweet cherries. However, there has also been an increase in speciality varieties headed by the paler, more fragile, golden-fleshed Rainier, bred by Washington State University in the 1950s.
Total Cherry has networked with 45 growers and exporters drawn from nine countries, to exchange information on production, grading, and packaging. Many have also been on each others’ orchards with support from Total. The majority of orchards are now covered to protect the fruit against rain, hail and bird damage, in areas of risk.
Clark said: “One factor where everyone agrees is the importance of hydro-cooling to ensure the fruit reaches the customers in peak condition.”
Consumers still tend to regards cherries as a highly seasonal product, particularly with reference to the UK crop, but Total’s goal is eventually to close the gaps in the calendar which still exist around mid-October and again in early March. Clark is increasingly confident this will be achieved in the near future.
Next summer for the first time, Total Cherry will expand on its packing and distribution from a single specialist site in Kent belonging to FW Mansfield & Son, one of its grower-suppliers. Retail packaging requirements as much in type - from bags, punnets, bowls, snack packs and even most recently to mini trays -as they do in weight with sizes anywhere in the range of 100g to 1,000g.
For this reason Total Cherry imports which arrive by both air and sea are shipped loose rather than packed at source. Clark said: “We think this is the ideal way to build up expertise in the packhouse and also give us maximum flexibility and a better product for consumers.”
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