2021-22 Season Review

22 Feb 2021-22 Season Review

“There was a steady demand for New Zealand cherries, the timing of Chinese New Year was favourable”

The 2021/22 cherry season is finished for Cherri Global, who have orchards in Central Otago, New Zealand. Harvesting for the local market started in November last year, with the first exports in mid-December running until the end of January 2022.

The overall New Zealand cherry export volume in the recent 2021-22 season was around 3,220,000kg, an increase of 28% from the season prior.

“Due to the larger crop load and cooler spring, the consensus from all exporters we’ve talked to (and in our experience) the sizing was smaller than the previous season, although the increased volume and pleasing quality made up for it and thankfully we didn’t have any major weather events which affected the quality, as we experienced in the previous season,” said Anna Catley, Sales & Marketing Manager.

Cherri Global harvested over 400 tonnes in the 2021-22 season

“There was a steady demand for New Zealand cherries, the timing of Chinese New Year was favourable for the New Zealand harvest window and the logistics and clearance delays that Chilean cherries experienced made New Zealand cherries sent by air freight a popular product option.”

The company’s main export markets are Taiwan, China and Vietnam.

“As our expected production increases exponentially (by about 5x) in the next 3 years, we expect our three main markets to continue to grow, and we also hope to develop any and all other export markets as well. It is a real focus for us to establish and develop some identified new relationships now so that going forward in years to come when we have significant volume we are already established with a great reputation and high demand.”

Last year the company invested in rain covers which now cover 100% of the mature orchards in Otago, although this season there wasn’t too much rainfall they are fully protected should the region be hit with a rain event in future seasons ensuring guaranteed quality and supply for their customers.

“Another area of development which we are excited about is the results we had from our ‘planar cordon’ plantings. It was the first year of harvesting this new two dimensional planting structure and we were extremely pleased with the results. We noticed much better quality due to increased sunlight, and minimal to no rubbing due to the linear planting system and these trees were much easier to harvest. The cherries were also larger in size. This is really encouraging for us going forward as all our new plantings from 2017 onwards have been planted using the new system. We can already see the positive impact this new planting system along with our rain covers is going to have in order to give us a great quality crop with larger cherry sizing going forward.”