The first new season Spanish strawberries have arrived on European supermarket shelves and sources in Huelva, which produces 94 per cent of the Spanish crop, claim the quality of early fruit augurs well for the forthcoming campaign.
This year will see a greater availability of early season strawberries due to increased plantings of Splendor and other early varieties. The fruit harvested so far is “excellent, both in terms of flavour and shape”, producers say.
Splendor is a short-day variety obtained from the Plant Sciences & Berry Genetics breeding programme. It is well suited to the Mediterranean climate and its longer shelf-life means it can reach more distant markets.
Producers are hoping to reverse the downward trend seen over the last two seasons, during which sales values registered significant falls. According to figures from Huelva’s grower-exporter association Freshuelva, planted area increased by 6.7 per cent in 2013/14. However production in the region totalled 278,000 tonnes, well down on initial estimates of 300,000 tonnes.
Sales for 2013/14 fell by 10.7 per cent in value terms to €281.5m. Together with the 20 per cent fall in sales value in the previous season this represents a significant erosion in profitability for the industry.
In total there were 6,980 ha of production last season. Germany and France are the biggest exports markets, account for 36 per cent and 19 per cent of total shipments respectively.
