Over the past two decades, there has been a significant increase in labour costs, with a rise of 244%. As a result, labour expenses currently constitute approximately 67% of the whole expenditure associated with cherry production. The preponderance of labour expenses is mostly allocated to the harvest phase, constituting over 50% of the overall expenditure.
The process of orchard intensification has been found to result in the early onset of fruit bearing, while also ensuring the production of fruit of good quality. In addition to the utilisation of dwarfing rootstocks, the selection of appropriate training systems holds considerable importance as it exerts a notable impact on the harvest efficiency.
Indeed, there is a growing interest in planar systems and Y-systems due to their ability to enhance canopy light interception and speed-up harvest practices. Currently, it appears that plants trained using the UFO (upright fruiting offshoots) method have the highest harvest rate (0.81 kg/min), followed by those trained using the KGB (Kym green bush) method (0.72 kg/min), while the classic open center method has the lowest rates (0.47 kg/min).
In addition, the crop load management is of utmost importance, commencing with the practise of bud thinning. To further optimize the efficiency of sweet cherry orchards, it is imperative to develop compact fruit walls that possess canopies capable of effectively capturing sunlight while also being suitable to mechanization. This will also make it possible to reduce the high production costs, which today are mainly related to the need for manual labour.
Source: I. Iglesias, Development of innovative high-density orchards aiming for an efficient and sustainable sweet cherry production, IX International Cherry Symposium http://2021.cherries.org.cn/replayEn.html
Melissa Venturi
University of Bologna (IT)
07 Dec 2023
ANA Chile had sold about 700,000 cherry plants, more than half of which were Sweet Aryana, which would be equivalent to about 350 hectares, considering about 1,200 plants per hectare. The Pacific Red variety follows: ANA Chile sold 131,000 plants of this variety in 2023.
23 Apr 2024
Since 2017, the MSU team has been comparing the performance of early dwarfing rootstocks (all from the Corette® series), developed by the university itself, with reference rootstocks Gisela 5, Gisela 12, Gisela 3 (sweet cherry only) and Maxma14.
20 May 2024
As for the quantities, this year we will express our full production potential of 3,000 tons, after a particularly poor 2023’ says Enrico Bucchi, General Manager of Valfrutta Fresco 'Last week we started with the first harvests and this week we are already at full capacity'.
20 May 2024
Alara is the biggest grower in Turkey with 220 ha of orchards for production out of peak season. Different dynamics are emerging since the last 10 years that are threatening the future of the business. Actions for sustainable production are becoming more and more important.
