FARMERS around the country are boasting record cherry sales this year, but the fortunes of those in Oxfordshire have blossomed less well.

Advertising agency Red Brick Road said that growers in the UK had shifted some 3,000 tonnes of the fruit to supermarkets – compared with 1,520 tonnes this time last year.

But Tracy Large, of Steventon-based pick-your-own farm QGardens, said the picture locally had not been the same.

QGardens is the largest fruit farm in Oxfordshire and home to the Harwell cherry.

Ms Large said: “We had a particularly good year last year, but winter in this area [at the start of this year] has seen the frost and rain come at a bad time.

“Heavy amounts of rain can knock the blossom off the trees – which you need for the cherries – and so that has affected us and our yield has not been good at all.”

She added: “What we have had has been very good, they have been nice and sweet. But our cherries finished about three weeks early when normally they last until the end of the summer holidays.

“It’s definitely going to impact our profits. People come from miles around for our cherries and we often get bus-loads of tourists coming to pick and buy.

“But you have good years and bad years and the last one was an excellent year for us.”

 

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