Extending the season for Kentish cherries

Cherries are the quintessential English fruit and have formed part of the backdrop of the Kentish countryside for hundreds of years. Visiting the Kent countryside to wonder at cherry blossom was historically a big source of tourist revenue, however in the last years of the 20th Century many of the traditional standard trees were grubbed due to poor returns, a high incidence of pest-disease and damage caused by cracking and hail damage. Since 2000 an upsurge in planting new varieties on dwarfing rootstocks and production concentrated under the protection of tunnels (rain-covers) has increased productivity, reduced wastage and provided financial incentive for growers to increase plantings and the number of varieties to span a 6 week harvest window. Cherry blossom festivals, such as the Japanese-influenced Hanami festivals are increasing in popularity with tourists (e.g.Brogdale 2018-19).

Demand for Kentish cherries is increasing due in-part to the drive to eat seasonal produce, reducing food-miles and helping to meet net zero targets, and not least the fact that Kentish cherries have superior flavour. The good flavou is partly because fruits are fresher, have not endured a 3-4 week transit times and thus the time taken to reach customers is minimal. The existing window for UK supply spans mid June to late July, with the late-season crop being stored short-term for 1-2 weeks before supply dwindles.

This project proposes to extend the marketing window for Kent grown cherries by a combination of approaches. This includes increasing productivity through ensuring fruit trees maximise available light under tunnels to ensure fruits ripen uniformly and fruits achieve maximum size and sweetness before harvest. We will install environmental monitoring sensors to provide growers with hourly data to help them respond to weather events across the orchards and predict harvest dates. We shall adopt the latest technology to capture changes in fruit maturity to allow more informed decisions regarding optimal harvesting of fruit suitable for longer term storage (3-6 weeks). This will be combined with the latest in dynamic controlled atmosphere storage where conditions are set in response to fruit requirements for oxygen allowing oxygen to be kept at very low concentrations without damaging fruit whilst maintaining good acid and sugar balance essential for maintaining taste. We will keep wastage levels to a minimum by adopting additional novel disease control measures, reducing losses by an estimated 5-10% (150-300 tonnes of fruit valued between £0.75-1.0 M to Norton Folgate).