Recently my wife and I were invited to speak at a cherry conference in Italy. A group of seventy professionals from all over the world were present. In the mountains, on the border of Italy and Switzerland, we were in a beautiful location between the snow-capped peaks of the Alps.
The lectures were all about cherries. The entire chain was present, from breeders to supermarkets. So from new, long-life varieties to the fully refrigerated chain of Woolworths in South Africa. Market research shows that turnover in cherries has increased due to higher prices over the past year. And elderly people eat twice as many cherries than parents with young children.
Most striking were the dozens of Chileans present. Or maybe not. Where we grow 600 hectares of cherries in the Netherlands, that is in Chile – are you in the right place? – no less than 74,000 hectares. Personally, it meant a reunion with our temporary Chilean ‘foster daughter’ who apprenticed with us in the tree nursery five years ago. She has now risen to the position of responsible for new varieties within her father’s company.
A cherry exporter said that 95 percent of all Chilean cherries are shipped to China. That almost idiotic idea, to ship cherries from the Southern Hemisphere to the then cherry-less Northern Hemisphere, also turned out to have come from her father. Cherries are a seasonal product that is difficult to keep, but are now sent to China for the Chinese New Year as a symbolic and precious gift for the family.
The government no longer grants exemptions for two necessary remedies against the Suzuki fruit fly
Han Fleuren, tree grower in Koningslust (LB)
Chile has started working on new varieties and better logistics and storage techniques. This has ensured that the South American country has shipped no fewer than 22,000 refrigerated sea containers of cherries to China this winter. It has now become a whole industry.
We went home full of impressions, many new cherry friends and with compliments for my lecture in my pocket. There we heard the news that the government in our country no longer grants exemptions for two necessary remedies against the invasive fruit fly Drosophila suzukii. The products are not only used in cherry cultivation in neighboring countries, but even in organic vegetable cultivation.
Suddenly, cherry cultivation in the Netherlands is on the verge of extinction. Due to observed violations of use by individual growers. In disbelief of so many impressions in one week, this was not exactly the expected icing on the cake.
Tags: Suddenly cherry cultivation Netherlands verge extinction
