Otago couple planting more than 100,000 cherry trees in multi-million-dollar project

September 24, 2019

The venture’s set to double national production of the fruit in the next few years.

They're one of our favourite summer treats, and when it comes to cherries, you don't get much better than those grown in Central Otago.

However, with overseas markets growing every year for our favoured fruit, an Otago couple has decided we need to grow a lot more.

So many in fact, Sharon and Ross Kirk hope to match the entire country's cherry output.

Over three sites they've planted more than 39,000 trees, but that's only a drop in the bucket, as over the next two years there's still 91,000 more trees to plant.

"It's not quite as expensive as doing a gold kiwifruit orchard, it's about $200,000 a hectare just to set it up and first production," Ms Kirk told 1 NEWS of the cost.

Already hot commodities overseas, with markets including China, Singapore, Europe and the US, the kirks hope to expand to places like India and Indonesia.

Just a few more years of planting and pruning to be had before New Zealand's cherry output swells in size.

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