Netherlands: demand for cherries was never this high
The Netherlands, Tholen – The cherry season just started and the earliest varieties have been picked. The season will continue until the end of August and will peak in about two weeks. “It’s a relatively short period, so we should enjoy it”, tells Jaco Elenbaas of grower organisation Cherry Queen. According to Jaco, the demand for cherries has never been this high. This is partly caused by the summery weather conditions but also by the increasing interest in healthy food. During other seasons, the cherry growers suffered from a lot of rain. Last year for example, in the same period an amount of 100 mm had fallen already. All cherries were damaged at that time. This situation doesn’t occur this year. It appeared that there would be a lot of frost damage but eventually it wasn’t too bad. The cherries are looking very good. The cherries from protected cultivation are good, according to Jaco. The cherries of unprotected crops show some cracks caused by the rain of the past few weeks. About 75% of Cherry Queen’s cherries are grown under screens. In the spring, fixed prices have been agreed upon. Therefore, the growers get good prices. This is also caused by the smaller amount of cherries from Belgium. Nevertheless the cherry growers feel the strong competition from abroad. There are cherries from Turkey, France and Germany on the market. The Greek cherries are small though, reveals Jaco.
Only 4% of the Dutch cherry consumption is grown in the Netherlands but more and more people, especially farmers, are considering to start growing cherries.
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