Hungary's cherry industry, with a season that started at least 10 days earlier than last year due to warmer spring weather, has seen good market demand and reasonable prices in the rest of Europe. "The season is running well, we are in the start of the late harvest with about seven to 10 days to go until the end of the cherry harvest in the country," says Peter Kelemen, from the Medifruct cooperative in Hungary.
The Hungarian Carmen cherry variety.
He says the market situation was not bad for them, with good demand from their neighbouring European countries. "Our target markets of Hungary, Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, and Slovakia were all demanding fruit. The prices were also reasonable."
The past few years have been challenging for Hungary's export cherry industry, with damaging frost in key growing regions. This year, the warmer spring weather meant less frost days and therefore less damage. Naturally, a bigger harvest was obtained.
Kelemen says this year Hungary's cherry supply is much more than last year. It is estimated to be around 12,000 tons. "The supply was much more than the years before, following the same period after the spring time. We saw better volumes, because there was less frost damage. The one thing that was causing a lot of problems, especially over the last three to four days was rainfall. In the last three days we had growers who had up to 100mm of rainfall. That is too much even with cover over their crops."
The Hungarian Carmen cherry variety.
Kelemen is a self-confessed "cherry addict" who also likes to trial different varieties of cherries from other origins. He describes the Hungarian developed variety of Carmen as "Our pride and sorrow. It is probably the most well-known Hungarian bred variety. A beauty that was created by Mr. Brozik and Mr. Apostol. It has very large fruits, with a sensitive skin and a soft structure. While it is still a moneymaker, but only for domestic use and short term export. It has to be handled with care during the harvest, which is really important."
He advises growers across Europe and the world to evaluate all aspects of cherry cultivars. "In order to reach a high performance in an orchard in an East/Central European climate, but pretty much all over the world probably, all the small details should work together - plot selection, training system, planting density, nursery material health, tree vigour, water quality, pruning, nutrition. All in order to create a strong tree with a good balance. If some of the puzzle is missing, there will be a heterogeneous performance of trees in the orchard that limit the production potential, and then maybe you judge a variety not based on full information."
The Hungarian cherry harvesting will end in about 10 days, says Kelemen. "We are harvesting the late varieties of Kordia and Regina, which are the only ones left in the country," he concludes.
For more information:
Peter Kelemen
Medifruct
Tel: +36 06 30 336 4775
Email: [email protected]
www.medifruct.hu