Company closes the nursery campaign with a 20 per cent increase in plant sales
With just over a month until the first Mediterranean strawberries begin to arrive on the shelves, Segovia-based El Pinar has reported a 20 per cent increase in plant sales.
The company said despite the more favourable weather, this year’s campaign is expected to see lower production.
Commercial manager Jorge Muñoz, said this could be down to a slightly cooler spring, but is principally due to the lack of effective tools for soil disinfection in nurseries. “In our case, and thanks to the rusticity of our varieties, diversity and increase in production areas, both in Spain, Poland and Romania, we have been able to meet the demands of producers, even achieving an increase in plant sales of up to 20 per cent,” he said.
Muñoz stressed that varietal rusticity is an essential characteristic for the strawberry sector, not only in production areas, but also in nurseries. “Nurseries want security when multiplying plants that they can then safely market, and producers also need that security when it comes to implantation, and then also to have quality fruit,” he said.
The Victory variety from the US plant breeding programme of Plant Sciences Genetics has secured an important market share, shows further potential for growth in all markets, reinforced by its plant rusticity, crop implantation and the quality of its fruit. El Pinar said.
With a consolidated varietal portfolio in the Mediterranean Basin, El Pinar is currently expanding its trial fields in these same production areas, mainly in Spain, Italy and Greece, in order to advance in varietal selections adapted to each production area.
The company’s research efforts are focused on strengthening its range of early varieties.
One of its latest offerings is the BG061 selection from the American Plant Sciences Genetics programme, which is in the trial phase with farmers and which complements Primavera and Renewall.
“We have very good growth forecasts with this new material, because in addition to precocity and productivity, it incorporates rusticity, which today is the starting point of any varietal selection,” Muñoz said.
