The harvest of the first cherries of the Spanish season, the exclusive Cherries Glamour, is expected to start in the Cinca River Valley in just a few days.
"For more than twenty years now, our cherries have been the first cherries to be harvested in Europe and, in fact, we are the only company in the Northern Hemisphere capable of harvesting in the second half of March," says Óscar Ortiz, sales director of Cinca Group.
"This year we will start on the 24th, several days later than last season, but with a larger quantity of fruit. We will go from harvesting 60 tons last year to 80 this season. And as always, it will be very good quality fruit," he says.
The secret to having managed to produce cherries at the end of winter/beginning of spring, which no other company has managed to replicate, has been technology, "but also the passion for cherries of the people who launched this project back in 2000," he says. "We've had many years of learning and trial and error, but thanks to this we have managed to implement the technology and R+D that have allowed us to be the only Spanish company to obtain this ultra-early greenhouse cherry."
"The cherries marketed under the Cherries Glamour brand were obtained by growing certain open-ground cherry varieties under specific conditions to allow them to ripen throughout the winter. In fact, to prevent the ripening process from accelerating, allowing us to offer excellent fruit to the market, we keep both the amount of light and the temperature in our 100% air-conditioned multi-span greenhouses at optimum levels so that the fruit develops on the trees as if it was growing outdoors," says Óscar.
"However, since they grow without suffering any windy spells or exposed to inclement weather, our Glamour Cherries have a more remarkable quality and brightness than the cherries from open ground fields."
"Next week, Europe's main gourmet centers will receive our exclusive Glamour Cherries, and in the second part of the season, in early May, the open-ground cherries from the 450 hectares cultivated by Río Cinca producers will reach various European retailers," says Óscar.
"We are starting off with very good prices of around 80-90 euros per kilo and, like every season, we have already seen a great deal of interest in buying our cherries from parties all over Europe. This has led us to consider expanding our production so that in future seasons we can offer a larger volume of Cherries Glamour. At the moment, we have around 80,000 m² of greenhouses in production and we are in the process of building another 30,000 m²."
"Seeing our success, many companies in Europe, Israel, or Chile have tried to copy us, but Río Cinca remains the producer of the first cherries of the year in the Northern Hemisphere," says Óscar Ortiz.
For more information:
Río Cinca
Carretera A1241 – Km 11
22549 - Finca San Miguel, Huesca. Spain
Tel.: +34 974 345 141
https://cincagroup.com/