The reason for this shocking photo showing 400,000kg worth of a prized Christmas food item dumped in a field by a farmer

A shocking photo has shown a massive 400,000kg of cherries - a staple item on tables around the country at Christmas - dumped on a farm after the crop was damaged by wet weather. 

The discarded cherries were dumped on the field in a vast pile by a farmer at Young, a regional town around 372km south-west of Sydney, after a recent harvest. 

A rain event destroyed or damaged 60 per cent of the crop, with shoppers likely to see shortages of the prized Christmas food item this festive season. 

Josh Ball, co-founder of Farmer's Pick, a leading advocate of preserving fresh produce of fruit and veggies in Australia, uploaded a video to TikTok on Friday to reveal how cherries are among several crops that have been damaged across farms this season. 

'This summer heavy rain has damaged various crops, particularly cherries,' Mr Ball said. 

'Cherries are fragile and if rain occurs at the wrong time, it can split the skin.'  

Mr Ball said the fruit is being knocked back by the major supermarket chains due to the slight disfigurement. 

He said this has left farmers losing revenue from their crop yields. 

'These factors force farmers to discard even more cherries resulting in significant financial loses. 

'That's why we have partnered with local farmers across Victoria and NSW to salvage as many cherries as we possibly could.'

The piles of cherries that were dumped would have generated up to $4million in profits as cherries are one of the most expensive fruits in Australia. 

Mr Ball said supermarkets including Coles and Woolworths are rejecting thousands of tarnished fruits like cherries because of 'unrealistic beauty standards', preferring only 'picture perfect' fruit for consumers.

He said around half of all produce from farms never make it to supermarket shelves because of the way they look and said shoppers would be forced to fork out more to buy fruits like cherries.  

Farmer's Pick estimates that as much as 2.4billion kilos of fresh produce is rejected annually even before it leaves farms. 

Responding to Mr Ball's claims a spokesperson from Coles told Daily Mail Australia the supermarket giant works with farmers to reduce food waste through it's 'I’mPerfect' range. 

'We offer a range of cherries to our customers of different sizes to maximise the use of crop from our farmers including a 300g prepack and our loose offering,' the spokesperson said. 

We assess all produce for eating quality, ripeness, pest damage, appearance and expected shelf life, and are deeply committed to balancing this with reducing food waste.' 

A spokesperson from Woolworths told Daily Mail that the company's 'Odd Bunch' range offers shoppers good quality fruit 'that might be a little imperfect'.

'We work with a number of Australian growers throughout the season to supply cherries to our customers all across the country,' the spokesperson said.

'We closely work with our local Australian growers to ensure we're maximising total crop to reduce any wastage.' 

Farmers have become increasingly frustrated at supermarkets rejecting their produce with one Aussie farmer who goes by the name of 'Mama Viv' online claiming that it becomes difficult to work with the retailers when they find minor flaws in the product.