"Swedish consumers not willing to pay for organic strawberries"

Swedish consumers love organic strawberries, the only problem is that they are not always willing to pay the price for them, which can be more than double than conventional strawberries, shared Bo Andersson from Ewerman AB.

It's not much better for growers. Andersson said that there are only 2-3 organic strawberry growers in Sweden because they are just so difficult to grow and are really expensive. The season is also very short, typically lasting around 3 weeks. Most are grown in open fields, with a small number grown in tunnels and glasshouses.

"It is difficult to grow organics, it's expensive and there aren't very many strawberries on the plant. If the consumers are ready to pay for them I think that production will increase, but up to now it has been a very slow market for organic strawberries." said Andersson.

The conventional strawberry season also started around the same time (wk.23), which was a bit of a late start compared to previous years. This lack of supply brought higher prices, but Andersson expects prices to decrease by this week as production goes into full steam.

"There have been low volumes up until now because of colder weather, but as the temperatures have increased over the past few days, the real crops are going to really start." shared Andersson.

"Every year brings something different, so it is always difficult to compare one year to the next. Warm temperatures last year brought the opposite situation, with the season starting much earlier than usual, with early varieties almost finished by midsummer."

For more information:
Bo Andersson
Allfrukt
Tel: +46 042- 490 11 00
Fax: +46 042- 490 11 80
Email: b.andersson@ewerman.se
www.ewerman.se