Hail storm means bad business for Niagara cherry farmers

For farmers, rain is a good thing but when it turns to hail, it could be devastating. Cherry farmers in Niagara are being forced to dump their crops due to last weeks’ sudden hailstorm that damaged their fruit two weeks before the harvest.

Dan De Vries says the loss of their 120 acres of cherries could cost them $250 000. Normally the cherries would pass through a machine to be de-pitted and eventually used to make pie filler and concentrate but De Vries says these cherries wouldn’t even get past the sorting process.

Employees say the hail affected all of Niagara’s sour cherry farms and that cherries from Simcoe will have to be shipped over. Luckily for these farmers, they just finished a successful strawberry season and crop insurance should cover about half their losses.

While tart cherry farmers are already looking to next year, sweet cherry farmers are very much open.