Less quantity and better quality are the hopes for this year’s Spanish berry crop says Julien Segonzac at the import department of Fruits CMR. “Last year we had very low prices and to add to that, trouble with heavy rain. Market demand was also fairly stagnant so it was a difficult season all-round.”
Reports are mixed as to whether there will be a drop in strawberry volumes this year. Some companies, such as Brittanic Fruit Importers, have forecast a decline of up to 40 per cent, while others maintain that volumes will be as predicted. However all agree that Spain is currently suffering from a cold snap and that the start of the season has been delayed.
“Strawberries were late to start this year,” says Bill Ashby, managing director at Alconera UK, “and that was because of the heat last summer. The plants suffered adversely in the high temperatures and there was also a lot of rain in November coupled with poor light levels. The plants were late in the ground to begin with and it took longer for them to reach the right size. It has been a setback, but this will have no impact on volumes coming through.”
With the amount of work that has been carried out on early varieties in Spain, the late start will be unwelcome news. “Usually the season begins in mid-January,” says Pascal Simian at Wellpak UK, “and although the first strawberries have now arrived it will be a while before we get any volume coming through. The difference this year is that everyone was expecting the berries to be early, and to start at the beginning of January, so the delay has made quite a difference.”
Morocco has also been late to start, says Simian, and Egypt and Israel have both been suffering from rains so prices have been raised quite substantially. “The Spanish will be trying to keep the prices up but no doubt they will drop as soon as any kind of volume comes in.”
Despite the season’s tardiness, strawberries have displayed much better quality than in the past, says Ashby. Alconera’s main variety is San Miguel, and the company also produces Camarosa and Festival. “All of our research goes into improving flavour and taste,” says Ashby. “Early fruit is also a consideration and we do have an early-season variety coming through.”
To date the advanced selections and breeding lines at Redbridge-AFI’s trialing site near Moguer (near Huelva) has been cropping earlier than last year. “We recently visited the site and the weather was pleasantly warm in comparison to the same time last year,” says Ronnie McNicol of Redeva, Redbridge-AFI’s berry breeding programme. “The increased temperature has resulted in better pollination of the flowers and consequently much lower levels of malformed fruit. Fruiting is significantly advanced over last year with many of the Redeva potential varieties in advanced stages of cropping. The increased amount of sunshine has also raised the sugar levels in the fruit giving products which have excellent flavour.”
Camarosa is very much a staple of Spanish strawberry production, however it has been criticised in the past. Although it travels well, it doesn’t always deliver in terms of eating quality.
“In very recent times - the past two seasons - we have seen a huge increase in the range of varieties that growers are trying,” says McNicol. “It would appear that people desire a change of variety and it is now a matter of deciding which one(s). This is one reason that Redeva took the bold step of setting up its own breeding, selection and trialing facilities in Spain. The other reason is that we believe that through our sister company Solfresco we can improve the quality of product that is available to the major retailers in the UK.
“At present we have 25 new lines under test for the first time in Spain. At this stage we have relatively small plantations of each. However, even these plots generate sufficient material to enable the Redeva team to evaluate the selections accurately, to allow sufficient samples for the major retail customers of Redbridge-AFI to visit and sample the new products and finally for us to send shipments of samples back to the UK. At Redeva we believe these last two functions are imperative if new varieties that are of direct relevance to the retailer and consumer are to be produced. We have deliberately set out to involve the retailers at an early stage of our breeding and selection process.
“Redeva also has six advanced selections, identified in the preceding season as being excellent for a whole range of characters. We therefore decided to fast-track these and multiplied them up for planting on carefully selected commercial holdings. This step is essential for two reasons; it allows us to generate relatively large volumes of fruit for evaluation and also permits us to understand how grower-friendly the potential new variety might be.”
Well-Pict European (WPE) is also investing heavily in new varieties and technology. The company’s Luke Mercer says: “WPE is already sampling varieties coded 633 and 625 and named varieties Ventana, Festival, Candonga and Chiflon - all varieties that are creditable alternatives to the ubiquitous Camarosa.
“Ventana is eating well at the start of the season with a good shape and size. Chiflon has good appearance and taste, Festival has good colour and an elongated appearance, and Candonga has elicited a mixed opinion. As the season progresses WPE expects, as last year, that customer preferences on varieties will change but it has the capacity to supply the majority of its orders in alternatives to Camarosa.
“The company’s 15 hectares of hydroponic strawberry are still in Camarosa as requested by the customers - the hydroponic production is producing fruit grown without the use of methyl bromide and also achieving exceptional quality.”
“There has been increasing interest in hydroponic or soil-less growing techniques,” says McNicol, “and we believe that this might become so important that we are trialing all Redeva potential varieties under this very system of culture.”
Hydroponic production does have its good points and its bad points,” says Ashby. “For instance, the plants are colder up in the air because they lose residual heat from the ground, but then they are easier to pick. Ultimately, it comes down to economics. If you are growing for supermarkets then you need to be thinking in terms of being as efficient and economical as possible and hydroponic production doesn’t always allow for that.”
It is not just strawberries that have been affected by erratic weather conditions this year. Spain’s increasingly popular raspberry crop has also suffered from delays. “The raspberry season was slow to start because of the cold weather,” says Simian, “but now we are three weeks into it, volumes have started to stabilize. The weather in Spain has not been good this year, and the raspberries that we’ve seen so far are of very good quality but have only fetched low prices. This should change as soon as decent volumes arrive.”
Work is also underway to extend the raspberry season. McNicol explains: “There has been a unique growing system developed from growing summer fruiting raspberry types in the Huelva area of Spain outside of the normal growing season. The canes are grown through the summer and then stressed by the withdrawal of water prior to being lifted and cold stored. Once they have received sufficient dormancy breaking cold to allow the plants to grow they are removed from cold store and field planted. This kind of treatment allows growers to start fruiting raspberries in Spain in January - well outside the normal UK season. Strange as it may seem it is generally Scottish bred raspberry varieties that grow well under this system. The varieties Glen Lyon and Glen Ample are two of the most popular although the Canadian variety Tulameen is also popular. The production of this fruit provides the British consumer with fresh raspberries at a time when they are not normally available. This extension of the season has been shown by Redbridge-AFI to result in increased demand for raspberries as the consumer becomes more aware of it as a product.”
Raspberry sales have rocketed in recent years, says Ashby, and there are many reasons for the increase in consumption. “We’re now seeing large volumes being grown in a mix of varieties. Post harvest handling has improved and in supermarkets, raspberries are now displayed on refrigerated shelves.”
“In the last two years there has been much more demand for berry fruits in general,” says Simian. “Strawberries may be popular in terms of volume but raspberries are catching up quickly as the varieties sit better on the shelves and are made more appealing. In Spain growers are seeing raspberries as a good alternative to strawberries now, and are planting more and developing them because they represent a better way to secure an income.”
Other berries are also gaining ground. Alconera is now entering its first year of mainstream blueberry production and is also growing blackberries. “It really has been an excellent growing year,” says Ashby. “Blackberries are one of the easiest crops in the world to grow - they really don’t take a lot of input.”
Seasonal issues aside, the biggest concern facing Spanish berry growers says Ashby are new protocols, particularly because the goalposts appear to be moving all the time. “In Europe we felt that everyone was going to combine with one code of practice,” he says, “but the UK has moved away from that. Marks & Spencer has its Field to Fork while Tesco has Nature’s Choice. This does make things difficult for producers, but I’m sure it will change.
“There has also been a move towards a new style of packaging in terms of using flat punnets. These are a way of making consumers recognise they are buying something different.”
“It will be difficult for the growers at the end of February and the beginning of March because a lot of fruit will hit the market at the same time,” Ashby concludes, “but later on the quality will improve and the prices will get better. We’ve had three difficult years in Spain, but I am quietly confident that we’ll have a vintage year.”
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PLAFORM cartons are more than just packaging for fruits - they are an integral corrugated cardboard packaging system manufactured from printed, punched sheets of corrugated cardboard, offering a viable alternative to reusable plastic boxes.
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Since each box is used only once, Plaform is a hygienic method of handling and transporting. All risk of contamination is eliminated and the end-consumer can be sure that optimum hygiene is guaranteed. Since it is easy to print on the packaging, information can be provided to the consumer regarding the origin, storage methods, expiration date and other information. Plaform boxes also allow for better use of space in transport trucks and storage areas.
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