Cherries are known as the aristocrat of fruits. When is their ripening season?

Cherries have always been the leading “aristocrat of fruits,” once regarded by merchants as “golden beans.” So, specifically, when is the cherry ripening season?

In fact, the ripening times of cherries differ across producing regions. Below we will give a few examples of cherry ripening times in China's main cherry-producing regions.

1. Cherry ripening time in Panzhihua, Sichuan

They begin to ripen on March 20 each year, with prices basically at 25-28 yuan; by mid-April, the cherries ripen fully, with the best quality and large market volume, at 8-15 yuan; this continues until early July.

The main producing area is Huangcao Village, Baima Town, Miyi County. Cherries are a unique brand among Miyi's fruits, with a planting area of 10,000 mu across the county, mainly distributed in Baima, Puwei, Salian and other townships. They come to market early (mid-March to the end of April each year), are bright in color and pure in taste, and are deeply loved by consumers, selling as far as Chengdu, Kunming, Chongqing and other major cities; among them, the cherries of Huangcao Village in Baima Town, the Green Wild Flower Town in Puwei, and the Haita Shangri-La are highlights.

2. Cherry ripening time in Liangshan, Sichuan

April 3 is generally the Cherry Festival of Dechang County, Liangshan Prefecture, with Jiaobangou cherries especially famous, earlier than those of Xichang, Mianning and other places; the Cherry Festival is held together with the Mulberry Festival.

Another famous cherry hometown in Liangshan is Mianning. The county's annual cherry output has reached 12,000 tons, among which Fuxing Town, the hometown of cherries, is a cherry production and distribution center, especially suitable for intensive processing and production. Mianning cherries are brightly colored and sweet, with high nutritional and economic value, surpassing those from other places in taste, color and appearance.

3. Cherry ripening time in Jianyang City, Sichuan

The Jianyang Cherry Valley tourist area generally holds a Cherry Festival in mid-April. The Cherry Valley tourist area is located in Jiajia Town and Laojunjing Township on the sunny side of the Longquan Mountains. It has now formed over 10,000 mu of cherry groves centered on Laojunjing Township, with an annual output of nearly 20 million jin of cherries. Because of their unique quality, they attract tens of thousands of tourists to visit and taste the cherries. Cherry Valley cherries have now reached Chengdu, Chongqing and Guiyang, and some have even been air-freighted to Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Singapore. Cherry Valley cherries have become a famous specialty fruit of Jianyang.

4. Cherry ripening time in Wenchuan, Sichuan

Wenchuan sweet cherry is a famous specialty of Wenchuan County, Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province. The fruit is kidney-shaped, large, with an obvious suture line; the skin is dark red to purple-red and glossy; the flesh is rose-red, thick and crisp, sweet, and freestone, with excellent quality and rich contents. Wenchuan cherries begin to come to market in April, with a ripening period 15-20 days earlier than northern sweet cherry producing areas. In 2013, the planting area was 22,000 mu, with an annual output of 3 million kg.

5. Cherry ripening time in Maoxian, Sichuan

Maoxian cherries ripen at the end of April and continue until June, with an area of over 10,000 mu and an output of 800 tons. The county has 10 townships including Fengyi and Nanxin growing sweet cherries, with a planting area of more than 3,100 mu. Among them, the Luziping sweet cherry base is a 300-mu standardized production demonstration base for specialty fruits mainly featuring sweet cherries, established through land transfer, with nearly 200 mu of sweet cherries planted, making it currently the county's largest sweet cherry planting base.

6. Cherry ripening time in Pujiang County, Sichuan

The Cherry Mountain National 3A-level tourist attraction in Guangming Township has more than 20,000 mu of cherries, which only ripen in mid-to-late April. The cherry industry is a specialty industry of Guangming Township, mainly concentrated in Jinhua Village, Hanqiao Village and Guanmao Village. Every year when the cherries ripen, the “Guangming Cherry Festival” is held.

7. Cherry ripening time in Yiliang County, Yunnan

Yiliang County cherries are large, thick-fleshed, delicate in taste, nutritious, brightly colored and delicious, coming to market in early April. At present, the whole county of Yiliang has planted more than 8,000 mu of cherries, with an annual output of about 3,500 tons and an output value of more than 10 million yuan. Cherries have become one of the ways for fruit farmers around Yiliang County to increase their income and become prosperous.

8. Cherry ripening time in Shiping County, Yunnan

The cherry planting area in Xincheng Township and Longpeng Town has reached more than 2,000 mu, mainly with three varieties: local cherry, new varieties, and chelizi (dark cherry). Last year, the cherry output value reached 14 million yuan, coming to market in early April.

9. Cherry ripening time in Ludian County, Yunnan

Ludian County is located in northeastern Yunnan Province and is rich in uniquely distinctive cherries, with Xiaozhai cherries being the most famous. The fruit is nearly spherical, bright red and succulent, with thick flesh and a small pit, and a rich sweet taste. Xiaozhai cherries have a planting history of over 300 years, with 10,000 mu planted and an annual output of more than 300,000 kg, coming to market from mid-April to early May.

10. Cherry ripening time in Yongren County, Yunnan

Luoshuidong Village in Weide Township is the largest cherry planting base in the area. The township has successively established a cherry association and a cherry professional cooperative, and built a 3,000-mu cherry planting demonstration garden in Linjiaotang Village, Weide Township. At the same time, it has improved cherry varieties and promoted the planting of mid-to-late ripening cherries to extend the cherry-picking period, so they mostly come to market in mid-to-late April.

11. Cherry ripening time in Xixiang County, Shaanxi

Cherry Valley in Xixiang County, Shaanxi, is a national-level agricultural demonstration sightseeing garden with more than 10,000 mu of large cherries. The whole county has developed nearly 20,000 mu of cherries, becoming one of the country's three major cherry producing areas. Cherry Valley has 12,300 mu of contiguous cherry trees, with an annual output of more than 3,600 tons, coming to market in May.

12. Cherry ripening time in Meixian, Shaanxi

Meixian has 8,000 mu of cherries. Since May, Meixian's cherries and mulberries have come to market one after another. The Meixian large cherry agricultural demonstration base is located in Dangjiazhai Village, Qi Town, Meixian. Its unique natural and ecological conditions have produced high-quality fruit. The base covers 1,066 mu, with main varieties including Hongdeng, Meizao, Lapins, Rainier and others.

13. Cherry ripening time in Lintong County, Shaanxi

The 10,000-mu cherry orchard of Shaanxi State Farms Group has the titles of “China High-Quality Early-Ripening Large Cherry Production Base” and “China Sweet Cherry Standardized Planting Demonstration Farm.” It is currently the largest state-owned agricultural enterprise group in Shaanxi Province in terms of comprehensive scale. Since developing large cherries in 2003, it has produced strictly in accordance with agricultural product quality and safety standards and the fruit-livestock ecological circular agriculture model, established a production standardization system and a quality traceability system, and achieved large-scale planting, standardized production, industrialized operation and branded marketing. They generally come to market around May 10.

14. Cherry ripening time in Tongchuan, Shaanxi

May 20 is right in the middle of the cherry ripening period. Tongchuan cherries ripen about 25 days earlier than Yantai's, giving them very strong competitiveness. Tongchuan has 30,000 mu of cherries, with 14,000 mu bearing fruit and an output of 11,000 tons; it is a geographical indication product. The main varieties include: Italian Early Red, Hongdeng, Daihong, Early Big Fruit, Rainier, Yanhong, Meizao, Xianfeng, Summit, Lapins, Stella, Yanyang and Samito; among them, Italian Early Red ripens on May 1, Samito on May 24, and Yanyang on May 30.

15. Cherry ripening time in Yuncheng, Shanxi

At present, the domestically recognized high-quality sweet cherry producing areas, in addition to Aba Prefecture in Sichuan, also include Yuncheng in Shanxi and Weinan and Tongchuan in Shaanxi. In high-quality producing areas, the average fruit weight of sweet cherries can easily reach more than 8 g, while other producing areas find it hard to reach this standard. In the domestic market, for every 1 g increase in average fruit weight, the price per kg can rise by 2-3 yuan; in the international market, only those meeting this standard can be exported.

Good fruit flavor is also an important factor in attracting buyers. The quality and taste of sweet cherries produced in Henan, Anhui and Jiangsu, which are in the same early-ripening cultivation zone as Yuncheng, are far inferior to Yuncheng's sweet cherries. It can be said that Yuncheng sweet cherries have very strong competitiveness in the domestic market.

Early ripening is also a major advantage for Yuncheng sweet cherries in capturing the market. Yuncheng City belongs to China's sweet cherry early-ripening cultivation zone along the Longhai Railway, and the earlier the sweet cherries ripen, the higher the price. Early-ripening sweet cherry varieties in Linyi and surrounding counties and cities can begin harvesting on May 6-8. Jiangxian has introduced and promoted large cherries to “take root,” with a large cherry planting area of 12,000 mu, and can begin harvesting on May 10-15, 10-15 days earlier than Yantai, China's main sweet cherry producing area, and 25 days earlier than Dalian.

When sweet cherries ripen, out-of-town vendors come to Yuncheng to purchase them at a purchase price of 16-20 yuan per kg, while the purchase price in Yantai is 10-12 yuan per kg. Because Yuncheng cherries ripen extremely early, the Bohai Rim region (the mid-to-late ripening cultivation zone), China's main producing area, cannot compete with them.

Since 2002, China has become one of the world's top three net importers of sweet cherries, with imports of about 15,000-20,000 tons, while exports are only a few dozen tons. Apart from the small total domestic output, high domestic prices and no profit in organizing exports, the important reason for extremely few exports is that few domestic products meet export standards. Yuncheng, however, can fully produce sweet cherries meeting export quality requirements, so organizing exports can ensure high profits for cherries.

16. Cherry ripening time in Liaoning

Liaoning also has many core cherry bases, so there are many choices, and harvesting generally begins in early June. Among them, Dalian has large-scale cherry planting, with a cultivation area of more than 400,000 mu, and is the place of origin of more than 10 excellent cherry varieties including Hongdeng, Zaofeng, Juhong, Jiahong and Hongyan.

17. Cherry ripening time in Tianshui, Gansu

The 10,000-mu cherry orchard in Maoji Village, Ganquan Town, Maiji District, Tianshui City, Gansu Province. For the same cherry variety, the ripening period here is relatively late nationwide, avoiding the peak sales period, and the price rises accordingly. The ripening period of Tianshui large cherries differs from that of Shandong large cherries by nearly one month, and they only come to market in mid-to-late June.

In addition, Qinzhou large cherries in Tianshui City are also one of the nationally famous pollution-free large cherry main producing areas. The area is 50,000 mu, of which 30,000 mu bear fruit, with an annual output of 50,000 tons, coming to market in July-August.

18. Cherry ripening time in Ledu County, Qinghai

Ledu County, Haidong Prefecture, Qinghai, has 6,000 mu of large cherries, coming to market in July. At present, the planting area of large cherries in the whole district is more than 10,000 mu, with 810,000 trees, nearly 600,000 of which bear fruit, and more than 300,000 in full fruit period, with each tree yielding 5-6 jin, so the supply is quite limited, and its sales are mainly in Xining City and the counties of Haidong. The price is relatively high, at more than 60 yuan per kg.

Overall, the cherry ripening season is relatively concentrated, and generally freshly marketed cherries can sell for at least 40 yuan/jin, so the returns are quite good!