I am in a temperate hill area and considering cherry. Which regions grow it commercially, what altitude and chilling does it need, and is it really as profitable as people say?
Sweet cherry is a high-altitude temperate fruit grown commercially mainly in Kashmir (which leads Indian production), parts of Himachal Pradesh (Shimla, Kinnaur higher belts) and some of Uttarakhand. It needs substantial winter chilling and cool conditions, generally higher and colder sites than apple for good quality. It flowers early so spring frost is a serious risk, and ripe cherries crack badly with rain at harvest, which is the biggest production hazard. Many sweet cherries need a compatible pollinizer variety because they are self-incompatible, so plant pollinizers and ensure bees. Cherry can indeed be high value because it is a premium early-season fruit with strong demand, but it is also risky and perishable: rain-cracking, frost, birds, and very short shelf life mean income swings a lot year to year. It is genuinely profitable in good years at the right site, but treat the high-income stories as good-year figures, not guaranteed. Choose varieties, pollinizers and rootstock with your horticulture department for your altitude.
Cherry pays well when the weather behaves. But one rain at ripening cracked most of my fruit one year. It is a high-reward but high-risk crop here.
Pollinizer variety is a must, my early block set poorly until I added the right pollinizers and kept bee boxes. Birds also eat a lot, netting helps.
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