End looms for cherry cultivation in the Netherlands: ‘This would be stupid’

Cherry cultivation in the Netherlands will disappear if there are no longer any means to combat the Suzuki fruit fly. The Dutch Fruit Growers Organization expects this. Outgoing Agriculture Minister Piet Adema no longer wants to extend the exemption for the Tracer and Exirel products.

According to fruit grower Dirk-Jan van Lutterveld in Kesteren, Gelderland, this is ‘a stupid decision’. ‘It would be incredibly stupid to clean up your own cultivation and become dependent on something that is no better from abroad.’

Without Tracer and Exirel, cherry cultivation in the Netherlands is in danger of disappearing completely within a few years and growers will not have a harvest this season. “That would mean total destruction if we don’t have those resources. The Suzuki fruit fly multiplies quickly. This means that each cherry is affected several times. Then it becomes a big leaking, dirty mess,” Van Lutterveld explains.

The entrepreneur has late cherries and therefore only sprays in mid-June. But if you have early cherries, spraying in early May is recommended. Van Lutterveld tries to keep most flies out of the orchard with nets. He is hopeful that Adema will reverse this decision. “If you think about it again, I can’t imagine you wouldn’t come to a different conclusion.”