Strawberry growers in Huelva should diversify into production of a wider range of soft-fruit including raspberries, blackberries and blueberries.
This was the call from Clara Aguilera, minister for agriculture and fisheries at the Andalusia regional executive.
She made the call last week as she unveiled early results of an international campaign to promote and defend Spanish berries in European markets and highlight their sustainability and environment-friendly credentials.
The campaign is the work of the region’s tri-partite committee in defence of strawberries, CTDF, and is jointly funded by industry under the auspices of Interfresa, the regional executive and the local authority in the province of Huelva.
Aguilera said production of these other berry lines is vital to complement profitability for Huelva’s legion of strawberry growers. She reassured the sector that it could count on the “effort of the Andalusia executive to position the sector in the best situation to compete”, by backing commercial integration among companies and backing for research and development.
Spanish output of raspberries, blackberries and blueberries has been enjoying steady increase. In 2009, blueberry exports doubled year on year, while blackberry sendings climbed by half and raspberry exports remained more or less the same level. The UK is Spain’s biggest market for raspberries and the second largest behind Germany for blueberries and blackberries.
At last week’s meeting CTDT explained that the next phase in its campaign to promote the regions fruit is to create a brand Huelva Strawberries. José Luis García Palacios, president of Interfresa said: “That way we will be able to unite the sector even more and project our image better.”
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