Cherry growers eye blossoming Chinese market
BY TIFFANY CRAWFORD, VANCOUVER SUN JULY 5, 2013
Over 40 pickers at Dav-Sher Orchards bring in thousands of cherries every day to be sorted and shipped to foreign and national markets, like Taiwan and Toronto. Smaller cherries and fruit that are slightly damaged are sold domestically. They are first dumped in large wooden crates to be sorted and bagged.
Photograph by: David Wylie
Okanagan cherry growers are looking ahead to a fruitful future, and with an extra $20 million in sales anticipated annually to China, orchardists are gearing up to expand production.
Jeet Dukhia, president of the B.C. Fruit Growers Association, said growers who are buying new land in the Okanagan are choosing to plant late-season cherries over other crops such as apples or peaches.
He said Vernon grower David Geen, for example, has planted an additional 150 acres of cherries this year in Vernon, while others are switching their apple orchards over to cherries.
In a couple of years, when the new orchards are ready to harvest, Dukhia said it is believed the China market will be booming.
Last month, federal agriculture minister Gerry Ritz announced a deal with China that opens the door for cherries to be sold to that market.
He predicted sales of cherries would be worth $10 million in 2014, increasing to $20 million annually over the next five years.
But Dukhia estimates it could be even higher — as much as $40 million per year — in a couple of years as the lucrative China market gives growers more security and the industry in the Okanagan expands.
“If someone is buying new land, they are putting in cherries,” he said.
For the past two years, Okanagan grower Bill Sandher and his brother have been converting 225 acres of old-variety apple tree land in Vernon, Westbank and Kelowna to cherry orchards.
They were hopeful the China market would open up, but said they were motivated to switch mainly because of the high cost of replanting apples.
It costs $30,000 an acre to replant a new variety of apple, compared with as low as $15,000 per acre for cherry trees, he said.
And as China’s market — with its growing middle class demanding more luxury products — opens up, Sandher said there will be less stress for growers because they will be able to move the product and maintain a premium price.
The fruit is considered a luxury item in China, when ripe cherries with green stems represent good luck. Culturally, they are considered a very pleasing gift, similar to taking a bottle of wine to a dinner party in Western culture, said Glen Lucas, the association’s general manager.
“If you visit a family in China, you take a gift of food and you take the best product. And that’s what we have — a luxury product.”
Asia has been a strong market for cherries, and the demand has also been growing in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Vietnam, said Lucas.
The Okanagan cherries are a new late-season variety and are picked in late summer, at a time when cherry production in other parts of the world is winding down.
“You are selling your best product in scarce supply ... and because of that it gets a premium price,” said Lucas. “I think at this stage the expectation is (the Okanagan cherry industry) will expand and the Chinese market will be an opportunity for expanded production.”
This year will be a pilot year for sales to China, with restrictions and limited volumes. The Chinese have ordered tests be done on cherries from every orchard that will be exporting to China to ensure there are no Western Cherry fruit flies before the product is shipped.
B.C. exported more than $42 million worth of cherries in 2012, with almost $18 million to Hong Kong, $9 million to Taiwan, and the remaining $15 million exported to 23 other countries.
more:http://www.vancouversun.com/Business/asia-pacific/Cherry+growers+blossoming+Chinese+market/8622636/story.html#ixzz2YKieTyNI
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