Lighter crop for cherry season

By Kate Russell

A wet spring in the Marlborough region has resulted in a lighter crop for local cherry growers this summer.

Blair McLean from Cherrybank Orchard, who is the Marlborough grower representative for Summerfuit New Zealand, says it has been a “rough year” for some.

His family-owned nine-hectare orchard and packhouse are located on State Highway 1, between Blenheim and Picton, just north of Spring Creek.

He speaks on behalf of the five or six growers in the region.

“We lost a few trees to the floods in July, and some were stressed,” he says.

Then, a wet spring wreaked havoc on flowering during September and October.

“We had good flowering but there was rain every week which resulted in a poor fruit set and a lighter crop - which generally means a bigger size, but some variety yields were down 50 per cent,” Blair says.

“We had a dry November, and a lot of fruit we picked was good and clean.”

However, 50ml of rain on 6 December split a lot of fruit, and in some places damaged up to 25 per cent of crops.

He says despite a lighter harvest, the fruit is looking good and people need to get their orders in early this time of year.

“At the moment the market is screaming for fruit - the road stalls are very busy. People will need to get their cherry orders in well before Christmas as the crop might be a bit lighter than normal.

“The lead into Christmas is massive and if we don’t get too much more damage from the rain there will be the fruit there to pick.”

Blair also says finding staff has been a bit of a headache for many growers in the region this year.

“We have great staff but finding them is challenging in the Covid environment. We are adhering to Covid protocols but there have been quite a few new challenges for us.

“We are also holding off orders for North Island and couriers have been taking four or five days to get them up there, which doesn’t work without refrigeration.”