New Zealand: Picking cherries is like milking mice as sun shines for cherry growers

Clear summer skies spell a happy holiday for Marlborough cherry growers. Blair McLean said hundreds of tonnes of cherries were being harvested each day from his family’s Cherrybank Orchard near Spring Creek. Professional pickers started on November 20. The shop would be open “as long as possible” and pick -your-own should continue after Christmas. This was a great season with fine weather in November and December and good local prices, McLean said. The orchard was covered, to keep out rain which could split cherries, and to hasten ripening. “Last year we had 186mm of rain, the year before 170mm, the year before that 200mm .... this year, nothing,” McLean said before Christmas. The change to drier El Nino conditions meant irrigating trees, but that was more than made up for by the excellent harvest. For six or seven years, no Marlborough cherries had been exported, McLean said. Cherrybank was the last Marlborough orchard to send fruit overseas and for the first time this year, was ...