Spain: Cranberry fever

26/07/2016

The blueberry fever is transforming the Huelva countryside. The cultivation of red fruits in the province faces one of the greatest revolutions in recent years. The strawberry continues to be the queen of this sector of agriculture (according to the area occupied) but its weakness and the stagnation of national and international demands are causing farmers to also begin to pamper the rest of the berries in recent years. Among all, the blueberry wins the game in recent campaigns. It is a desperate attempt to maintain profit margins and, therefore, employment. Francisco Sánchez, manager of Onuba Fruit, confirms a trend that the numbers support. According to data provided to this newspaper by Freshuelva, the area dedicated to the cultivation of blueberries grew by 151,4% in the last four campaigns, an unprecedented increase in the provincial primary sector that makes the blueberry the great hope of farmers for the next years. Sánchez forcefully analyzes the data. «The blueberry is very profitable and very comfortable in front of the strawberry, which gives a lot of work, is very delicate and gives little performance«.

In the 2011 / 2012 campaign, the blueberry occupied 777 hectares, an almost ridiculous figure compared to the almost 2.000 hectares planted in this campaign. The fluctuation of the international market and the need to maintain profitability at optimum levels for the survival of the work in the extensions of red fruits, are at the base of the mutation of one of the key sectors of the provincial economy.

Despite the surprising nature of the figures, Francisco Sánchez takes them with caution, basing his interpretation on sensible ideas and a lot of logic. «This fluctuation is almost a desperate attempt to maintain work in the field. He confirms that international demand for blueberries grows exponentially in just a few years. And in Europe, the blueberry has been revealed as one of the most beneficial fruits for health. «In Spain we are still not aware that the blueberry is the most antioxidant fruit in the world. They know this very well in the rest of the continent and it is being very noticeable with a very significant increase in demand.«. The majority destinations for Huelva blueberries are Germany and the United Kingdom. The uncertainty of Brexit also affects the province's export forecasts, although concern in this regard, for now, is slight. Francisco Sánchez comments that «the export conditions may change when the process of leaving the United Kingdom of the European Union is completed, but I think it will not affect much«.

The manager of Onuba Fruit catalogs this new trend as a desperate attempt to survive. «In recent years there has been a lot of suffering in the field with strawberries and there has been a considerable increase in demand for blueberries. Farmers are seeing that the strawberry can not survive«. Sánchez comments that «7.000 hectares of strawberry planted in the province are needed to live«. Current data move downwards from this minimum desirable extension. The 2015/2016 campaign closed with just over 5.800 hectares of strawberries planted «and I am afraid that for the next campaign it is expected that the surface continues to decline, at least, an 20%«. The horizon is drawn downwards as far as strawberries are concerned, taking into account the evolution of production in recent years. In the 2011/2012 campaign, seasonal workers worked on a total of 6.400 hectares dedicated to its cultivation. The number has fallen this last season by more than 8%. The decline in strawberries is not as pronounced as the rise in blueberries, but it is constant and is consolidating as a decline that will continue in the coming agricultural campaigns, according to experts' forecasts.

The data, therefore, do not allow the strawberry business to be kept at a profitable minimum. Blueberry fever, therefore, infects the majority of farmers in the province without, in the opinion of Francisco Sánchez, being done in an orderly manner and without carefully studying the forecast regarding the demand for the fruit in the medium and long term. term. In his opinion, today much more blueberries are being planted than will be able to be sold in the future, which could cause a new crisis for the Huelva countryside. Sánchez explains his thesis. «Keep in mind that the cranberry plant is a tree that takes two years to bear fruit and that does not start or have to be planted every year«. The surface area that is now being dedicated to blueberries will remain intact and, therefore, its production will reach hitherto unknown levels. «We will have to sell triple what is being sold now and that is very complicated«. Sánchez clarifies that «It is true that the European demand is increasing, but I doubt that Europe will consume as much blueberry as the one that will give the field of Huelva«.

Sánchez puts the emphasis of the problem on one more variable, profitability. Now, blueberries are so profitable because there is a balance between supply and demand «but when the trees that are being planted now begin to bear fruit, the supply of blueberries will rise to historic levels and then we will see at what price we can sell it in Europe and if it is still so profitable«. The hope, then, will be that blueberry consumption in Spain increases considerably, a forecast that, for the moment, seems almost impossible considering that 99% of Huelva blueberries are sold outside the country.

Source: huelvainformacion.es