Although this year has been disastrous for fruit growers, many of whom have had to deal with frost kill and drought followed by heavy downpours, cherry producers in the South East have said they remain undeterred by the inclement weather.

From South-West England to Belgium and the Netherlands, erratic weather throughout 2012 has cost growers dearly; in the worst affected regions many stand to lose up to 80 per cent of their apple, pear and cherry crops. In the UK, the South East has been most severely affected; horticulture experts have said this year’s weather has been the worst in 35 years for growers.

Tom Hulme, a cherry grower from Kent, said that new growing techniques, which use less water, control cherry splitting better  and allow for better management, are having a remarkable effect on the growing industry. He is confident that UK growers can satisfy an ever-increasing proportion of domestic demand over the coming years. Innovative techniques and better management are at the heart of suggestions made in the government-industry Green Food Project, launched today by Defra.  

Last year, ahead of a bumper harvest, Simon Wells, a grower from Herefordshire who supplies supermarkets, listed the advances in cherry growing which are benefitting UK producers and allowing them to remain viable. He revealed, “dwarf rooting stock, rain covers, trickle irrigation and consistency of supply” have benefitted his business and enabled him to manage inputs much better, providing financial and potentially environmental benefits. He said, “In our own case, we started in 1994 or 1995 planting an older root stock and we had one tonne to the acre, in 1999 we found this new root stock and have been planting 10 to 20 acres a year since and the yield has increased to almost six tonnes an acre.”

In 2000, following a dramatic decrease in production towards the end of the twentieth century, the entire cherry industry in Britain shifted just 400 tonnes of cherries. Although production has been severely affected this year, growers expect to sell 2,000 tonnes of the fruit and increase production to up around 5,000 tonnes in 2013.

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