Overview of the beginning of the cherry season: under very heterogeneous conditions, a slightly better than average harvest is expected

(Photo: Pixabay)

By harvesting the early varieties, about two weeks earlier than usual, May 15-20. this year’s cherry season began between Depending on the variety and region, the cherry harvest shows an extremely varied picture in the national outlook, which can be explained on the one hand by the locally occurring frost damage in April, the weather conditions experienced during the flowering period of the given variety and region, and on the other hand by the local precipitation in the last week. In general, it can be said that after the mild winter, it was warmer than usual during the flowering period, but cooler, relatively light-poor weather conditions prevailed during the setting. In general, the attachment at the national level was better than in the previous couple of years, but in this cooler period, a significant clear drop occurred. Forecasting is made difficult by extremely heterogeneous conditions. In any case, we cannot speak of national spring frost damage in the case of cherries, yet there were districts where the frost caused serious damage, for example in Zala and Szabolcs.

Currently, the early cherry harvest is still underway: Bigarreau Burlat, Valery Chskalov are already arriving on the markets, and the Nimba harvest has also begun

In southern Hungary, the picking of Vera and Carmen is now starting, and the arrival of larger quantities is expected from the beginning of June. Based on the experience of the first week of the season, a larger quantity than in previous years was put on the markets, there are no quality problems so far, the fruit size in areas more exposed to drought is somewhat lower than expected. It is a warning that the cherry fly appeared very early (as early as the first half of May), so you have to start protecting yourself earlier than usual in order to avoid causing more damage. The larger-than-average harvest volume is basically welcome, but it also means that, due to the unorganized and fragmented sales conditions that are unfortunately characteristic of Hungary, those producers who are not members of a sales organization, do not have GlobalGAP certification, cannot deliver packaged products to the market, may be in trouble. and those who do not carry out reasonable and high-quality nutritional supplementation. With them, the small-grained, harder-to-sell fruit causes sales problems, which can already be felt at this early stage of the season, and this phenomenon is expected to accompany the entire season. This is also accurately reflected in the price ranges on the Budapest Wholesale Market: the wholesale price of small-seeded cherries between 22-24 mm is HUF 600-700/kg, and this category is difficult to sell even for that price, while nicely selected, large-sized For (30+) fruits, prices around HUF 3,000/kg are not uncommon. Overall, this means an average price of HUF 1,300-1,500/kg, so the price difference between the quality classes is huge. The consumer prices – depending on the size category, presentation, packaging – typically range between HUF 1,500-3,500/kg.

In Hungary, in good years, around 12,000 tons of crops are usually harvested

At this early stage of the season (especially with regard to the current rainy season) it is still very difficult to predict, but it can be seen that compared to the previous two or three years, the crop loss so far is much smaller. Based on this, it is likely that in the year 2024 a cherry crop of 12 thousand tons or slightly more can be expected. For the time being, the quality is fine, but producers in many places have reported that there may be problems with fruit size, especially in areas more affected by drought. It should also be noted that during the season – depending on the weather conditions – the seasonal supply can change even within a very short period of time: in the case of cherries, a rainy period of a few days can cause significant crop losses, which leads to a decrease in the quantities on the market.

FruitWeb