“It will be one of the best years”: how are the Itxassou cherries doing in the Basque Country?

In Itxassou, the cherry harvest is in full swing this June 2025. Buoyed by a good season, the thirty or so producers grouped around the Cerise d'Itxassou brand still hope to obtain a PDO

A ladder made from the bark of the fruit trees, and a wicker basket, slung over her shoulder, follows her through the orchards. In the shade of the Itxassou cherry trees, facing the first folds of the Pyrenees, Maryse Cachenaut takes in her delicate little red fruits.

One by one, like scrutinizing pearls, for 30 years now, this producer has been waiting for these few weeks before summer to harvest the Basque cherries that are the pride of the village. Maintaining, selecting, and hoping too, "we're still dealing with fragile fruits," warns the farmer. Hail, cold spells... "There's always a risk as long as the fruit hasn't reached maturity."

Luckily, this year 2025, the cherry season should end well for Basque producers in the 66 municipalities of the registered "Cerise d'Itxassou" brand. "Over the past ten years, we've had more irregular weather. More years with poor harvests. It was more consistent, for example, in the previous 20 years," emphasizes the farmer, who is already talking about a "good year 2025": "It will be one of the best years."

For this producer, who uses almost all of her fruit in jams, a good harvest also means sustainability. "It allows us to stock up more. With last year's small harvest, we haven't had any jam to supply our customers since the beginning of the year," explains the woman who is also the president of Xapata, the Itxassou cherry producers' association.

Three varieties of cherries are thus cultivated and "aopéables", among the eight grouped under the name of Itxassou cherry: La Peloa (purple to black cherry), la Xapata (yellow to orange cherry) and la Beltxa (black cherry). "These are varieties adapted to the climate here. We speak of guignes, it is very different from a bigarreau for example. They are much smaller. We cannot produce large cherries here with the rain, otherwise they would burst." Quite a know-how.

Around the farmer that morning, three generations of producers take turns in this family GAEC. "We harvest with my son, but my father always helps us a little. He continues the trade," concedes Maryse Cachenaut, with a small smile. It's difficult to break certain reflexes, especially for this crop deeply rooted in the Basque landscape.

"At the beginning of the 20th century, up until the 1960s, this was the height of cherry growing here […] It was mainly a market for fresh cherries (not processed into jams, editor's note), which went to wholesalers in Bayonne and Dax. There were also more people on the farms." Larger families and farms full of workers, but Maryse Cachenaut continues to pass on this link between cherries and the Basque region. She also believes in the future of the sector, which is part of a balanced economy.

An "economical" crop, especially when the trees are a few years old, and which, according to her, requires "little land." But the farmer also points out that for her and her fellow producers, mixed farming and livestock farming remain essential. "For my part, I also raise sheep; it's my husband who's taking over at the moment."

That morning, Maryse Cachenaut pointed to a small building at the back of the orchard. "The oldest trees are just behind it. Some are fifty years old. Some of my neighbors have some that are almost eighty." As early as 1860, Pierre Loti marveled in his memoirs at the "splendor of gardens, orchards, rose bushes, in this little land of cherry trees..." More than a century later, there were no rose bushes to be seen, but cherry trees pearled with red, and the producers as heirs.