Seesaw Cherry Season

A year of rapidly changing weather caused a lot of headaches around this year’s cherry season. Cold conditions in Tasmania and extreme heat in the NSW region caused delays and troubles for consumers wanting their cherries.

With a forecast of a promising season in early 2019, the weather turned not as favourable as most would’ve liked. The cherry harvest around the country was delayed a week to 10 days due to the climate in Tasmania. The lack of sunlight and cool conditions caused a change in the readiness of the cherries during picking time. Joe Amalfi from Provincia, who has been sourcing cherries from Tasmania for years, said, “this year’s (2019 start) cherry season had a week delay due to low temperatures through the mainland. The weather played a big part as it impacted the quality of the cherries, which created a short supply. With the short supply and high demand for cherries, it caused cherry prices to increase.” In other parts of Australia, complete opposite weather conditions were being played out. Heatwaves swept across NSW, causing setbacks for the cherry season. For many of the farms, most scrambled to pick the cherries before temperatures in the 30’s and 40’s hit. In extreme heat, cherries don’t last as well as when they’re picked in cooler weather, so there was a rush to pick the cherries to ensure the quality. Some farms even encouraged buyers to use the ‘pick your own’ system and arrive at 5 am instead of the usual 7 am start. The drought and extreme weather in the NSW region also saw a reduction in the fruit set. Some vineyards had smaller crops, and some had none at all, making it extremely difficult to go into the new season. Thankfully this was not the case for all businesses. Despite the weather, some were very successful this season but are still wary of the rising temperatures in 2020.