Change of trend in strawberry in Huelva
In about a month, the plantings of the strawberry in the province of Huelva will begin. The fields of the County and the coast of Huelva are prepared these days to welcome the next campaign, with the traditional padding or enlomation of the land in which the seeds of the red fruit will be planted.
There are good prospects among producers for the 2017-2018 campaign, in which it is expected «to stabilize the surface of strawberries around the 5.400 hectares, after years of continuous decline in favor of other red fruits such as blueberries and raspberries«, they point out from the Association of Producers and Exporters of Strawberries of Huelva, Freshuelva.
In the same sense, the technical director of the Huelva R&D&i company, Fresas Nuevos Materiales (FNM), Antonio Refoyo, states that «the strawberry will continue to be an important actor in the next campaigns and we predict that there should not be more falls neither of sown areas nor of prices. In fact, it is expected that the plantation will increase slightly in the next season, given the uncertainty of what will happen to the blueberry«.
More berries less strawberries
In the last campaign, 5.800 hectares of strawberries were planted in the province of Huelva, 8% less than the planting of the previous campaign. For the third consecutive year, the area of strawberries planted in the province fell again in favor of the cultivation of berries as raspberries and blackberries but, mainly, blueberries, which experienced the greatest growth (30% more) due to the fact that their price is much higher in the market.
However, the manager of the second-grade Huelva cooperative Onubafruit, Francisco Sánchez, predicts «a change in trend in a few years", ensuring that the strawberry "It will give satisfaction in the future with rising prices"While "It will be impossible to maintain the profitability of blueberries" as «the market will not be able to assume the current pace of sowing«.
Therefore, he declares that "abandoning the cultivation of the strawberry is a mistake", well "the market itself is able to admit more than 5.800 hectares of strawberry and I hope that in this campaign that will start a quantitative leap in terms of prices«.
Onubafruit is the largest producer of berries in Europe, with a production of 30 million kilos of strawberries, 10 million kilos of raspberries, 12 million kilos of blueberries and 500.000 kilos of blackberries.
Source: Sevilla.abc.es
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