More and more of mainland Europe’s fresh produce buyers are looking to build the berry category into something resembling the highly successful British model, sourcing a broader range of different types and varieties to ensure it appeals to a larger number of consumers.

That's the view of Theo Houwen, managing director for Europe, Middle East and Africa at leading berry marketer Driscoll’s of Europe, who says he has seen reasonably strong growth in the market across many parts of the continent over the past 12 months.

“The market is growing quite rapidly,” he told Eurofruit. “That's what we see everywhere. It's really expanding and we are also able to get a lot of figures and information to show that.'

However, strawberries continue to dominate the category, he admitted. 'For example, in the Netherlands they are still 80 per cent of the total volume. It's still the same in Germany and France too.”

Driscoll's is a sponsor of this year's Global Berry Congress, organised by Eurofruit and set to take place in Santiago, Chile, on 24-26 April 2013.

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