After a season marked by March frosts, the Greek cherry sector is approaching the new campaign with significantly more favorable weather conditions. Expectations are high, but growers remain cautious: in the cherry business, heavy rainfall can reshape the market within just a few days.
Agia, Greece’s main area for early cherries, is expected to begin harvesting in early May. Kostas Nikolitsas, a local packer, confirms that weather conditions are supporting fruit development, despite some minor issues, including fruit drop.
“There is talk of a very abundant crop in our area and in Greece overall,” explains Nikolitsas, who avoids firm forecasts: “I prefer to let the weather speak before we do, because if it rains heavily, not a single cherry will remain.”
Precisely because of this uncertainty, there are still no advanced commercial negotiations between growers and packers. The campaign will follow the law of supply and demand, which in the cherry sector can shift from week to week.
In addition to Agia, Lamia, Tirnavos, and Milotopos are also key areas for early production. If harvests overlap with high volumes, the market could come under pressure as early as May, as Nikolitsas suggests with a traditional Greek expression: “Hey, old friend, take mine as well!”
Thanks to numerous microclimates, cherries from Agia can be available throughout almost the entire season. However, the race for earlier production is not always an advantage: the earliest fruits are often more delicate and require greater care both in the field and post-harvest.
Some more resilient varieties have shown good performance, but they are still not widely spread. As a result, limited volumes are mainly destined for the domestic market, where they achieve high prices. Exporters, on the other hand, mainly come into play with mid-early varieties.
Greece is approaching the new cherry campaign with strong production potential, but the true arbiter remains the weather. After last year’s losses, the sector looks to Agia and other early areas with measured confidence: it will be May’s weather pattern that defines volumes, quality, and prices.
Source text and image: www.freshplaza.es
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