Cherry 2016 – Final COST Cherry FA 1104 Conference in Naoussa (Northern Greece), home of the ‘Tragana Rodochori’ cherry | Cherry 2016 – Abschlusskonferenz des EU Projektes COST Cherry FA 1104 im Anbaugebiet der Tragana Rodochori-Kirsche in Nordgriechenland
2016
Blanke, M.
The final COST Cherry FA 1104 conference was organized in Greece, Europe’s 4ᵗʰ largest cherry producer after Poland, Italy and Spain. Altitudes of ca. 600 m asl provide sufficient chilling (1200 Chilling Units) for early flowering at 40°N at the beginning of April in Greece’s predominant cherry growing region Macedonia; honey bees provide pollination. Cherries are cultivated on fertile soil without frost protection or polytunnels and harvested from 25 May to 15 June. Old varieties and trees are eventually replaced by new varieties in intense plantings on micro-propagated GiSelA 6 or Piku rootstocks from local tissue culture labs; nurseries provide the grafted trees for the cherry industry. The pomology institute in Naoussa was founded at a site of a grapevine nursery 50 years ago in 1961 for research and to support the industry and extended to cherry from 1970 onwards. A small portion (13–17 %) of the 60,000 t harvest is exported mainly to Europe (8–10,000 t), while Russia imported 6000 t of Greek cherries until 2014, before the Russian embargo started. Export quality is achieved by hand thinning of the small fruitlets with scissors after flowering. These large-fruited cherries of EU protected origin ‘Tragana Rodochori’ obtain farm gate prices of 2–3 €/kg making the Greek cherry industry worth € 120 million a year.
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