Named five countries holding 50% of the world market of cherries
Turkey, USA, Chile, Uzbekistan and Iran are the TOP-5 sweet cherry producing countries in the world. They provide 50% of the volumes.
Olena Kaizhen, executive director of the Association of Berry Growers of Ukraine, spoke about this during the forum "Drupe fruits in Ukraine: current state and development prospects."
In 2021, Uzbekistan exported 10,000 tons of sweet cherries to Italy alone.
"Italian buyers were also looking for cherries in Ukraine, but we could not make our offers due to low yields, and Uzbekistan won in this situation," Elena Kaizhen explained.
In Ukraine, the area under fruit-bearing cherries in 2020 amounted to 10 thousand hectares, the total area of plantations - 11.6 thousand hectares. The total production amounted to 63.5 thousand tons of sweet cherries in 2020, which is less than in 2018, when there was a peak in production, because both 2020 and 2021 were difficult, frosts destroyed the volume of the crop.
"Reverse spring frosts are becoming the norm for Ukraine. There are methods of control - smoke, sprinkling, the use of heat generating machines. However, in 2021, farmers claimed that from 20 to 80% of the future crop were destroyed during frosts," Olena Kaizhen added.
The expert notes that not all Ukrainian varieties of cherries are suitable for long-term transportation. In order to successfully sell products, it is necessary to build cold logistics, because only cherries in good condition and packaging will be in demand.