Sweet cherries of Uzbekistan: traditional technology of growing, picking, sorting, packing, sales

Uzbekistan is among the top-5 leading cherry exporters in the world.

In the midst of the cherry harvest season, the EastFruit team visited the Fergana Valley of Uzbekistan, one of the country’s main cherry regions. Cherry orchards, intensive and extensive, are located here on vast areas. Most of the cherry plantations are extensive, in the other words traditional.

Harvesting of cherries begins at about 6 am and lasts until 12 noon, when it gets too hot. Trees are huge and one of the main issues during harvesting in traditional orchards is how to pick fruits from the middle and upper part of the tree?

Here it is solved with the help of long wooden stairs and special structures in the shape of a pyramid. This ensures the stability of the structure and therefore the safety of the assemblers. Nevertheless, it is a very dangerous job especially getting the fruits from the very top of the tree.

Typical size of a traditional cherry orchard in Uzbekistan is less than a hectare. Often cherries are combined with peaches.

Trees are established on a sour cherry rootstock. Two most popular cherry varieties are: an early variety "Samarkand", and a later variety called "Bull's Heart" or "Tashkent". In general, these two varieties are universal; they are good both: for the domestic market and for export to Russia.

Cherries are picked in special buckets made of light and non-rigid plastic - this ensures the minimum weight of the container itself and minimizes damage to the fruit when the pickers put the cherries there.

In 2021 the cherry harvest was delayed by about 10 days due to frosts in the early spring.

After filling a bucket of cherries, the pickers carry them to another part of the orchard, where they are hand-sorted by defects, colour, and size.
Ladies inspect each fruit, examining it carefully for defects, damage, overripe and size. Manual sorting of cherries is a very long process, which requires a lot of attention. Since outside air temperature varies from 33 to 42 degrees Celsius, cherries lose a lot of moisture and weight, meaning that farmers lose a lot of money. It also reduces the shelf-life of cherries and negatively impacts their quality.

Early in the morning the buyers of sweet cherries bring boxes of 4.5-5 kg, and then they take the sorted cherries in the same boxes. They take 100% of what was picked in the orchard, including poor quality cherries.

By noon, two batches of cherries are formed. From here, these cherries begin their journey to domestic and foreign markets.

The cherries that aren’t suitable for exports due to defects of size are sold at a half price for processing or for the fresh market for low-income consumers.

The main export markets for Uzbek cherries are Russia, Kazakhstan, and Kyrgyzstan, with their total share accounting for 95 to 98 percent of the total sweet cherry exports from Uzbekistan. Nonetheless, small but growing volumes of Uzbek cherries are exported also to China, South Korea, Middle East, Great Britain, and the EU countries.

In the Fergana Valley, the bulk of fresh fruit exports are shipped from the Altyaryk district of the Fergana region, the largest export consolidation facility, wholesale market Altyaryk, is located here.

The wholesale market is seasonal, functioning from April, when the harvest of early varieties of stone fruits begins until the end of autumn – when the harvest of late grape varieties, persimmons and peaches ends.

Commercial farmers and dekhkans (small farmers) as well as some intermediaries bring fresh cherries to the market already graded and packaged according to the standard requirements of exporters.

Traders and exporters are the main buyers, who consolidate large volumes of cherries here. The wholesale market has cold storage chambers, where buyers place each small batch of purchased fruits, gradually accumulating necessary volume for the export shipment. Trading is done at night.

Do you think this traditional cherry business will last for many more years or will the modern approach change the usual way of doing stonefruit business in Uzbekistan? Jump in the comments below and let us know what you think!

EastFruit team supported by FAO and EBRD will also be happy to introduce you to leading Uzbek cherry exporters, including these that use hydrocooling and optical sorting in their business.

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