With Poland's fresh blueberry sector looking forward to expansion this year, the country's strawberry sector could also be shifting towards the fresh market having been mainly focused on frozen and processed fruit, according to Tomasz Werner of online berry information portal jagodnik.pl.
'Poland hasn’t played a great role in EU exports of dessert (fresh) strawberries, but everything indicates that this situation may soon change,” he tells Eurofruit.
According to Werner, a changeable market and low profitability for processed or frozen strawberries has encouraged growers to invest in fresh production in recent years, and this has been boosted by improved cultivation techniques and the availability of new technology and varieties.
'The export market for fresh strawberries is becoming more important and is increasing in both directions, both to the EU and east, mainly to Russia and Ukraine,' he notes.
Poland is anticipating a good crop for fresh strawberries this year, with volumes much higher than those seen in 2012.
'Polish strawberry exports are conducive to better organisation for future sales to the EU and CIS markets,' Werner adds. 'Many farms have long been operating in accordance with IPO and GlobalGAP certification.'
