"Berries' fever arrives in Spain"
"In five years, berries have boosted their turnover by 300%, very good news for the first producer in Europe", Rafael Domínguez, manager of the sectoral organization Freshuelva, says. "Spain was a country that only ate strawberries but nowadays more and more supermarkets demand the rest of the berries". Virtually all berries produced in Spain are grown in Huelva, where before there were only strawberries. Other berries are more sensitive than strawberries but much more profitable as well. While, at wholesale level, one kilo of strawberries is paid at just one euro, the raspberry at more than 5 and blueberries range between 12 and 18 euro.
"It's not just the profitably, but the need to diversify crops", Domínguez explains. "With the arrival of new berries we can cover other times of the year when there is no strawberry production".
With regard to 2011/12 campaign, Huelva has quadrupled the hectares of blueberry plantations, reaching 2,858 almost doubled those of raspberries and tripled those of blackberries.
Onubafruit, a Huelva-based cooperative, is the largest berry grower in Europe. Last year it invoiced 200 million euro, of which a third comes only from raspberries. "In 2009 we sold 300 tons of raspberries, now we sell 35,000", its manager says. He believes that the strawberry is a produce with signs of economic decline in the future.
Blueberries are the kings of the so-called superfoods. Its explosion has been so great that even small plantations obtain remarkable returns. The blueberry, unlike strawberries and raspberries, which are fast-growing plants, is a shrub that only starts to commercially produce when being three years old.
La Canastilla, another cooperative in the province of Huelva, is the largest producer of blueberries in Europe, selling currently 1,300 tons per year.
Spain exports around 90% of berries it produces, because, despite the increase in domestic consumption, the country's consumption is still far from that of northern Europe countries.
"In Spain we are more fond of sweet fruit", Domínguez points out. "Germany and UK's demand ends up inflating prices" and countries such as the Netherlands and Poland "are big competitors". Poland produces large quantities of raspberries for industrial purposes; "we have lost that niche for what we are dedicated to fresh produce".
"In the Netherlands, they are light years away in terms of production and marketing. They have facilities with a lot of technology and they have also done a great job repacking what they import from other countries like Peru". "Being a small country, the volume of production that the Netherlands have is impressive, something we should think about", Domínguez concludes.
Source: elconfidencial.com / www.agroberichtenbuitenland.nl