Arava Export Growers of Israel will concentrate on the domestic strawberry market this season and has no plans to ship sizeable quantities of strawberries to the UK.
David Crossland, managing director of Mill Associates, which took over the marketing activities of Arava UK last October, told freshinfo: “Arava preferred selling to the Israeli market in 2008-09 and with the exchange rates the way they were, achieved just as high a price as they would have done in the export markets.
“The group doesn’t have plans to supply the UK when the Israeli strawberry season begins again in November.”
Arava intends to produce “considerably less” strawberry volume in 2009-10 and will focus more on its herb, tomato and pepper operations.
“Supplying the domestic market has become more attractive recently,” Crossland said. “It isn’t as pernickety over grading and sizing issues and you don’t have to deal with overseas transport costs.”
Arava had been supplying strawberries to UK wholesalers and distribution companies and has also previously shipped to the Netherlands.
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