Company said its premium strawberry varieties achieve consistent Brix above 8 throughout growing season
Spanish berry breeder Berries del Oeste says its flagship Arwen strawberry variety continues to gain traction in Southern Europe, having demonstrated “exceptional” market acceptance.
According to a recent IFAPA report, the variety accounted for 4.1 per cent of plantings in Huelva, Spain and an estimated 15 per cent of Greek market in 2024/25. The company said it expects production to increase by at least 50 per cent for the 2025/26 season, reflecting strong grower and retailer confidence.
“Our varieties are selected specifically for taste,” said Berries del Oeste’s owner and technical director Luis Aliseda. “We’ve solved a key challenge facing berry buyers: how to deliver the authentic British summer strawberry experience while meeting the commercial performance requirements of modern retail.”
According to Berries del Oeste,all its varieties maintain Brix levels consistently above 8 throughout the growing season, ensuring consumers receive the same sweetness whether purchasing in December or April.
“Arwen recreates the perfect balance of firmness and juiciness that made British summer strawberries legendary, while maintaining structural integrity needed for retail handling and display,” the company said. “Our Lourdesa variety, meanwhile, offers a real premium, classic conical shape and glossy red colouration with outstanding organoleptic qualities suited to European market demands, every single pick.”
Berries del Oeste said its hydroponic mother plant production system delivers tangible benefits for shelf-life performance. By growing mother plants in substrate with no soil contact, it claims that the resulting plants start off much cleaner and produce fruit with inherently better keeping qualities.
“This clean production approach addresses retail’s primary concern: consistent shelf-life performance that allows for longer display periods and reduces wastage losses,” Aliseda said. “Our strawberries maintain their glossy appearance, firm texture, and eating quality for genuinely longer periods. The combination of our advanced genetics and clean mother plant-production systems has meant that growers and suppliers are reporting to us significantly lower levels of claims throughout the season.”
The company claims that its hydroponic plant-production approach not only improves plant health and fruit quality but also positions the varieties well for sustainability messaging – increasingly important for retail marketing strategies as consumers become more environmentally conscious.
“In an increasingly crowded strawberry market where differentiation is difficult, having varieties that genuinely deliver on taste while meeting commercial requirements gives retailers a real competitive advantage,” Aliseda noted.
