Morocco's berry sector has been growing rapidly in recent years. The country has positioned itself among the world's largest suppliers of raspberries and blueberries, as well as strawberries, and this growth has gone hand in hand with the success of companies like iBerry, which more than a decade ago decided to specialize in fruits that now have really interesting market conditions. In the case of blueberries, growth has been exponential during that period.
"iBerry is a cooperative that was founded in 2013 by six agricultural producers and engineers who had previously worked with a Spanish company while based in Morocco for more than twenty years. After the acquisition of that company by a multinational and a radical change in the working model, these producers, who have extensive experience in berry cultivation, decided to start their own project, which, in addition to production, included marketing, and the company was thus set up," says Mouhssine Ismaili, managing director of iBerry.
"We first started working with an English company that had the exclusive rights to market our fruit in Europe and the United Kingdom, but after seven years, we went our own way, and we have been marketing our fruit directly throughout Europe ever since," he says.
"One thing that helped us a lot was the working model of European supermarkets, which prefer to work directly with the producer companies, cutting out intermediaries and thus providing extra value and allowing producers to obtain higher margins," says Mouhssine.
"This allowed us to become direct suppliers to well-known supermarkets in the UK and Europe. We have our own sales team in the UK, and in the rest of Europe, we have partners with whom we have established long-term business relationships based on commitment, trust, transparency, and honesty. We have distribution partners in the Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, and Switzerland, but we also have partners in other equally important fields, such as varietal development," he says.
"In fact, we have exclusive rights to the main breeding programs of our European partners, such as the Spanish breeder Berries del Oeste, which granted us exclusive rights to the production of its Arwen variety in Morocco.
"In our search for a variety suitable for the fresh export, domestic, and frozen markets, we found the Arwen"
iBerry has large production areas in Larache, Agadir, and Moulay Bousselham, where it has a large experimental farm for new varieties and cultivation techniques.
"Blueberries have become our main crop - accounting for around 70% of our production volume - but iBerry initially focused on strawberry cultivation, which we are still doing today," says Mouhssine. "Morocco offers ideal conditions for berry cultivation, including the weather, so we have a very interesting production window, and we are also close to the European market. That is why, when it comes to strawberry cultivation, our strategy is based on delivering quality early fruit."
"Working with potted plants, our export window runs from around December 15 until the end of March. From then on, when Spain enters the European market with larger volumes and very competitive prices, we move on to the domestic market, where strawberry consumption is also good, and to the frozen food industry," says Mouhssine.
"This balance between the fresh export market, the domestic market, and the frozen market always leads us to look for varieties with the right characteristics for them: a long shelf life, high Brix degrees, and a good flavor, as well as the intense color required for freezing. It's not an easy task to find a variety that fulfils all these requirements, but we have succeeded with the Arwen. It's a variety that gives us a great balance between fresh and frozen, and which is highly appreciated both in the export market and in the domestic market," he says. "Besides, this year, in which we've had a lot of rain in Morocco in March, as well as in April, we've seen its great resistance to fungal diseases, which has allowed us to stand out for yet another year."
For more information:
Mouhssine Ismaili
iBerry
[email protected]
https://iberry.farm/