Storm cloud over cherries: orchardists in a daily race with weather

Yesterday Mr Gaeta said he had put the call out to find as many pickers as he could to get the fruit off the trees before the rain yesterday afternoon.

“We’ve already picked three varieties of cherries, or 40 tonnes, and about 30 per cent are damaged,” he said.

“We’ve got the pickers working hard now to get what we can.”

Peter West, who has cherry orchards at Nashdale and Canobolas, says he has also employed extra pickers to try to get the cherries off the tree before they are rain damaged.

“You always worry about too much rain, and we’ve got one variety, Kordia, that can handle the rain,” he said.

“(But) we’re worried at the moment, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens over the next couple of days.”

Mr West said he had already lost a “few” cherries as a result of the heavy rainfall this month.

NSW Farmers horticulture committee chair Peter Darley said it was a worrying time for cherry growers.

“The orchardists are certainly anxious to get as many cherries off as they can,” he said.

“It doesn’t look good for the rest of the week as far as the weather goes.”

Weatherzone predicted 10mm to 20mm of rainfall yesterday with more rainfall expected until Sunday.

tracey.prisk@fairfaxmedia.com.au