Pink Hudson raspberry set to complement Adelita in Morocco

Despite especially adverse weather conditions last season, Adelita, a raspberry variety developed by berry breeder Planasa and launched in 2012, continued to be the best performing variety in the winter season, maintaining its leading position in the segment.

The variety’s success is due not only to its production in this specific window, but also to the yields it is offering, according to Planasa. “Last season closed with a record average of 15 tonnes of fruit per hectare, which has been marketed all over the world,” the company said.

According to Hamid El Maloui, project manager at VitaBlue, part of the VitaSouss Group in Morocco and one of the main raspberry growers in the countries, “Adelita has yielded up to 15 tonnes per hectare hydroponic, and 13-14 tonnes depending on the farm”.

“Adelita’s planting plasticity and productive capacity continue to be of interest to growers in different geographical areas, especially Spain, Portugal, Morocco and Mexico, where has a strong positioning due to its easy agronomic management and marketing,” Planasa revealed.

“Adelita performs very well,” confirmed El Maloui. “It’s petty adapted to the area where we grow in Agadir, the south of Morocco, and we still can achieve good yields. We are very satisfied because Planasa’s team have helped us to improve the yields. The weekly visits to farm, the proximity of the team, especially Safwane Allem – Planasa’s sales director in Morocco – have meant a lot to us. They have been very close providing technical support on operations, fertigation and so on. This has made us improve, definitely.” 

This is VitaBlue’s third season producing Adelita, and in just two years, the company has trebled its planted area for raspberries, growing from 32ha to 95ha, with almost 90 per cent dedicated to Adelita and the other 10 per cent to Pink Hudson.

“We grow Planasa genetics on 100 per cent of our raspberry surface,” said El Maloui. “These are good genetics. Vigorous and yielding varieties.” 

This season sees the launch of Pink Hudson, a primocane variety with very good agronomic and organoleptic qualities that have aroused the interest of the main European retailers, according to Planasa.

“The new genetics are important, the raspberry market is looking for flavour, for premium varieties,” said El Maloui. “We believe this is the only way to improve in sales.

“We need a variety with two cycles to complete Adelita. We want to start early and be producing from the beginning of October till mid-June. This means gaining almost two months, one at the beginning and at the end and cover a bigger production cycle. And it also has good flavour. We say flavour is the fuel of sales.”