The “excellent facilities in Ethiopia” are proving successful as the country achieved its first fruit sales in UK supermarkets earlier this year, according to a study.
Strawberries from Ethiopia were on the shelves of Morrisons earlier this year and performed well in independent comparison trials carried out by the Writtle Postharvest Unit, which is part of Writtle College.
The strawberries were of the Yuval variety and this was thought to be the first time that Ethiopian fruit was sold in the UK by one of the leading supermarkets.
The fruit was grown by the Ilan Tot strawberry farm just outside Addis Ababa and this was their first season of full production for the export market. The farm received some assistance from the Agribusiness and Trade Expansion Program in Ethiopia, in particular with integrated pest management work to reduce any agrochemical inputs to the very minimum.
Senior soft-fruit buyer for Morrisons Michael Jackson, said: “We are pleased with the quality of the strawberries and the excellent facilities in Ethiopia.”
The strawberries were evaluated for appearance, weight loss, disease, occurrence of condensation and shape, from the day of purchase until a day after the “best before date” and then assessed for firmness and brix.
Dr Chris Bishop of the Writtle Postharvest Unit said: “The results from the Ethiopian strawberries were very similar or better than those purchased at other supermarkets.”
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