Stefano Lugli - SL Fruit Service
Cherry Times technical-scientific committee
The areas invested in cherry orchards in Italy continue to decrease and the national production of Italy's most beloved fruit fell dramatically in 2013. Will Romagna cherries save us or will we have to get used to eating Turkish and Uzbek cherries? Probably yes.
Thanks to the investments made by Apofruit in the Cesena and Forlì area and those of Agrintesa in the Faenza area, according to the latest CIA report, Romagna has almost doubled its cherry tree surfaces in just 10 years, in contrast to national trends and those of its rich and noble cousins from Vignola.
Unfortunately, cherry growing in Romagna, like so many others, has had to suffer the devastating effects of climate change this year: frost, rain and floods that have effectively wiped out local cherry production. Read the CIA report here.
And if the people of Romagna are crying today, while looking with some optimism at their future, the people of Emilia are certainly not laughing and see any prospect of growth in the cherry sector as smoke in their eyes.
There are few rays of sunshine and many clouds on the horizon: suffice it to say that Vignola's famous cherries hit an all-time low in 2023 after 150 years, with just 3,000 tonnes of cherries harvested. And instead of investing in new plantings, cherry trees continue to be cut down in Vignola. Just as in Apulia, Italy's leading region in cherry production.
We are drifting. And it is not just the fault of climate change.
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USDA proposes new marketing rules for Washington sweet cherries: higher minimum size requirements, exceptions for Rainier and Royal Anne, updated packaging categories, and more aligned standards to support grower profitability and access to crop insurance.
