The varietal trials conducted on new cherry cultivars by Agrion in Manta provide useful indications for new orchards. Also noteworthy are the results of the cherry investment project carried out by Op Sanifrutta in Costigliole Saluzzo.
The synergy between research institutions and the agricultural sector drives the expansion of cherry orchards in the Cuneo area: a common thread links the testing of new self-fertile and self-sterile cherry varieties in Agrion’s varietal fields in Manta, Saluzzo, with the crop development projects undertaken by producer organizations in the Granda region.
Agronomist Davide Nari, technician at the research body founded in 2014 by the Piedmont Region and Unioncamere, addresses the issue of new varieties starting from the “state of the art” of the crop in Cuneo. “The province hosts 60 percent of the 390 total hectares cultivated in Piedmont; another 20 percent is located near Pecetto, in the Turin area. The expansion of surfaces over the last decade has concerned exclusively the Granda: the commercial groups active in our area have been the driving force behind this growth.”
Today the province counts “one hundred hectares of specialized orchards, established since 2014 with dwarfing Gisela rootstocks, which allow for reduced spacing and increased plant density per unit area. Moreover, 90 percent of the new orchards are equipped with perimeter nets against insects and hail, as well as rain covers.” These solutions, together with cultivation difficulties, have curbed more extensive plantings in the past 2–3 years: “Planting costs can reach €100,000 per hectare.”
Against costs and difficulties stand the certainties in terms of quality standards set by the market. “The production base consists of varieties with low waste percentages and fruit sizes ranging between 28 and 30 millimeters, an essential requirement for good grower remuneration. Agrion’s varietal trials have focused on these aspects and others such as peduncle length and fruit distribution on plants.”
The varietal benchmarks in Cuneo are two self-sterile cultivars: Kordia, ripening between June 13–17, and Regina, harvested later between June 18–25. “Both guarantee good yields, high-quality fruit and satisfactory size, high average flesh firmness, and low incidence of cracking,” the main issue in cherries.
Harvest phase evaluations played a central role in selecting the varieties planted in the experimental fields of Manta, which host trees of 75 cultivars across a 2,500-square-meter block planted since 2006. Evaluation occurs in three-year cycles, with about 15 varieties rotated annually: “The most promising ones are recommended to farmers, while poorly adapted ones are uprooted.”
In Piedmont, the most important production “falls in the intermediate phase, between June 10–25.” However, harvesting in the Cuneo area begins between May 25 and June 4, with the extra-early phase; the early phase follows immediately after, “between June 5–12.” The late period, between June 18–25, until a decade ago, concluded harvesting in cherry orchards “with the Regina variety. Increasing market opportunities have, in recent years, driven the development of cultivars that ripen significantly later, reaching maturity in early July. This is a difficult period because of increasing Drosophila suzukii pressure and technical challenges.”
The 2024 trial data provided useful insights for new orchards. Among the cherry varieties admitted to extended testing in the extra-early phase, “Folfer and Sweet Aryana, along with the French cultivars Nimba – self-sterile – and Pacific Red – self-fertile – reached just sufficient size for commercial purposes, due to the limited number of days between flowering and ripening. Sensitivity to cracking is also higher because of early-season rains.”
The picture is different in the early phase: “There are some interesting varieties,” continues Nari. Among them is the self-sterile cultivar Cerasina Prim 3.1: “It ripens 8–10 days before Kordia and gave excellent results. The fruit has firm flesh – 51 Shore degrees – an average size up to 32 millimeters, and sweetness reaching 16 Brix, a high value for cherries. Finally, its sensitivity to cracking is not very high.” Glen Blush, a self-sterile bicolor variety with white flesh, did not perform notably. The fruit reached 26 millimeters in size and 32 Shore firmness: “They are sweeter than classic cherries but more sensitive to handling and cracking.”
In the intermediate phase, “Henriette, a self-sterile cherry variety, proved to be one of the best-performing: the long peduncle and good cluster distribution of the fruit help reduce rot.” Positive data also emerged from M 2087, “a selection from the United States, not yet patented in Europe. The cherries reach 68 Shore firmness, with very low acidity, around 5 meq/100 ml.” Large fruit size, 32 millimeters, also characterizes the self-sterile variety Kir Vulcano: “In 2024, it exceeded 17 Brix with 44 Shore firmness.”
The self-sterile variety Fertard belongs to the late phase: it ripens 8 days after Kordia, at the same time as Regina. “It produces cherries over 30 millimeters in size, with 52 Shore flesh firmness and 17 Brix sweetness.”
Growing market interest accompanies the evaluation of extra-late varieties, with a harvest period extending into the first decade of July. This is the case with self-fertile cultivars from the German Cerasina series: Final 11.3, 12.1, and 13.1. “They guarantee excellent yields, fruit sizes between 28 and 30 millimeters, and firmness ranging between 36 and 48 Shore.” Finally, Kir Rosso, an extra-late self-fertile variety – ripening 25 days after Kordia – produces fruit sized 26–28 millimeters, with 48 Shore firmness and sweetness up to 17 Brix.
Yield analysis per hectare is another key point for growers: “Self-sterile varieties like Kordia and Regina average around 120–130 quintals per hectare. Self-fertile cultivars aim for higher levels, with productivity increases of 30–40 percent: 150–160 quintals per unit area.”
Sanifrutta, an Op based in Costigliole Saluzzo since 1989, associated with the Joinfruit producer organization in Verzuolo, began investing in cherries in 2014. “Today our members cultivate about 80 hectares of cherry orchards,” explains technical manager Alex Tallone. The consortium, originally founded by kiwi and peach growers, has nearly 200 member companies, a total cultivated surface of 2,000 hectares, and moves about 70,000 tons of fruit each year to markets ranging from Northern Europe to South America to the Middle and Far East.
“With a harvest of 400 tons, cherries represent just one percent of the group’s turnover, but with a gross production value that can reach €60,000 per hectare, nearly triple compared to apples, they generate growing enthusiasm among members. The product is mainly destined for the domestic market, while 30 percent is sold in Germany and Northern Europe.” Early harvest also “provides liquidity for our facilities and affiliated farms, with advance payments in July and balances settled by September. Remuneration is tied to fruit size: the optimal product for the market exceeds 28 millimeters in diameter.”
The project’s launch, “cutting-edge nationally in terms of orchard solutions, with protections against hail, rain, and insects; optimized irrigation management; nutritional strategies against rot and peduncular cracking; and pest defense,” was preceded by a long study phase. “We visited the world’s main cherry-growing areas in search of technical solutions for our members: we went to Chile, the world’s leading producer, to Canada’s British Columbia, the US West Coast, the Netherlands, and Greece. Dialogue with Agrion on cultivars was also crucial,” Tallone continues.
Varietal choice is the cornerstone of the initiative: the base is Kordia and Regina: “Benchmark cultivars highly appreciated for their fruit firmness and shelf life. The trees also adapt very well to our area, with yields up to 130 quintals per hectare in the best years.” Cost optimization also led Sanifrutta to extend the harvest calendar, with early cultivars like Frisco, Giant Red, Rocket, and Cerasina Prim 3.1, harvested from late May.
Late cultivars are the flagship of Sanifrutta’s cherry plan: “In 2021, after three years of study, we acquired, exclusively for Northwestern Italy, the Cerasina Final series.” Four varieties, named 10.4, 11.3, 12.1, and 13.1, developed by a German breeder near Lake Constance: “Harvest starts in early July and ends with Final 13.1 around mid-July. This year we handled the first 1,000 quintals of cherries,” specifies Tallone.
The first results are highly encouraging, both in yields – “between 170 and 180 quintals, with peaks up to 200, compared to a 20–30 percent drop recorded in 2025 for Kordia and Regina” – and in quality: “Eighty percent of cherries delivered reached 30 millimeters in size, compared to 60 percent for Kordia. With proper orchard management, there is further room for improvement.”
The focus of field operations is on nutrition and crop protection: “We implement a specific biostimulant strategy based on the use of foliar fertilizers and biostimulants with anti-cracking action, sometimes combined with the phytosanitary treatments required by the production protocol. Rot diseases and Drosophila suzukii require no more than 8–10 interventions from late winter to harvest, half of which after veraison.”
Pruning is carried out in two phases to maintain the spindle training system of the trees: “The first, mechanical, in late September, while the trees still have leaves, in order to avoid, thanks to the sap’s healing action, problems with Pseudomonas bacterial canker, which causes branch dieback, and cankers. Manual finishing is done in spring, between February and March.” The effects of climate change have forced some adjustments in rootstock choice: “In the last five years we have made functional decisions, abandoning excessively dwarfing ones such as Gisela 5, in favor of more vigorous selections like Gisela 6 or even Maxma.”
Alessio Giorgis runs the family farm of 11 hectares of orchards in Dronero, lower Maira Valley, in the Cuneo area. Apples are the main crop, along with 1.5 hectares of cherries, planted in two phases, in 2019 and 2022. “In the first plot, just under half a hectare, I opted for a mix of Kordia and Regina. In the more recent one, I reduced the surface for these varieties, focusing on Final 10.4 and 12.1, planted with 3.90 x 1.20 spacing.”
The cherry orchard is equipped with perimeter insect and hail nets. “Rain covers, in addition to their high cost, €2.50 per square meter, required much denser anchoring and cable systems to prevent the sail effect.” These expenses would have added to the per-hectare costs, about €45,000 invested. “The orchards allow us to guarantee continuous employment for our workers, filling the July ‘gap’, a month when operations in apple orchards are halted.”
After a 2024 heavily impacted by cracking – caused by June rains – which completely wiped out the harvest, the just-ended season recorded good results “between 90 and 100 quintals per hectare: the Final varieties performed better than Kordia and Regina. In 2023, the best year, I exceeded 130, but the trees will only reach full production around the sixth year.”
Pruning follows the specificity of cherries, “which fruit on two-year-old wood: it takes more time to obtain production from lateral branches.” Operations begin in autumn with a topping machine: “I cut branches 40 centimeters from the trunk so that light can penetrate the canopy and prepare the wood to sprout buds. Finishing is done in spring.”
Treatments include a copper-based product to disinfect cuts, an insecticide against scale insects at bud break, and an intervention against monilia on flowers in case of prolonged rains. Fertilization, however, makes the real difference: “Up to 7 applications of foliar products based on Ecklonia maxima, a seaweed that prolongs flower life and facilitates pollination, followed by formulations with boron, zinc, and magnesium, plus 2 quintals of potassium sulfate per hectare.”
Once flowering ends – which in the foothill area of Dronero begins on April 10 with Kordia, followed a few days later by the Finals and Regina – “between May 10 and 15 we carry out manual thinning: in some years we cut up to 40 percent of the cherries. In 2025, fruit set issues caused by rains simplified operations.”
Dario Cuniberti planted the orchards – one hectare out of a total 12-hectare apple-focused farm in the municipality of Dronero – after joining a study tour to Chile organized by Sanifrutta. “For cherry varieties I chose Kordia and Final 10.4 and 12.1. In our area we are 10–15 days later than the plain: an advantage for the packhouse as it extends the marketing period. The production cycle is also very short, does not overlap with apples, and the crop is a great economic opportunity.”
The 2025 harvest, the second since planting the cherry orchards, is promising: “Sixty quintals, under optimal conditions I should be able to double production.” The conditional is mandatory, “harvest is the least of the problems: 10 workers complete operations in a few days. The problem is obtaining marketable fruit.” Rain ranks first among adversities, “especially if it occurs during ripening. Cherries are much more sensitive to weather than apples.” Rain covers are not always effective: “In 2024, even those who had installed them harvested little and poorly.”
Drosophila suzukii is the second major issue: “Insect nets alone are not enough: a few pairs of pests in a plot are enough to trigger an infestation. Up to the Kordia harvest, around June 20, confusion techniques and two insecticide treatments were sufficient, intensified with applications every 9 days to protect the Finals from infestation until the first picking, completed between July 5–7.”
Producer prices are the final major unknown. “Prices for good-sized fruit should exceed €3.50–4.00 per kilo this year: cherries are in demand because harvests in Apulia and Emilia-Romagna were poor. Fruit set problems in spring also favored us, reducing thinning costs and increasing margins.”
The same happened in 2024: “The shortage of product pushed prices up to €3.00, and the industry even purchased lots affected by cracking.” In 2023, conversely, “with optimal production, prices collapsed to €1.00 per kilo, below production costs.” These are effects linked to the peculiarities of the cherry market, “much shorter than that of apples because long-term storage in cold rooms and long shipments are not possible.”
Image source: SL Fruit Service
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