There is no doubt that the growth of soft-fruit production in England has impacted on foreign suppliers, but while some have turned their back on the UK market others have found ways to maintain a steady flow of business.
Leen Guffens of VLAM recently reported in the Journal that last year the UK had become the second biggest market in Europe - from fifth in 2003 - for Belgian strawberries, which account for over 90 per cent of the country’s soft fruit production.
“An amazing evolution” was how Guffens described this development; yet while several Belgian producers have been taking advantage of this upswing others have long turned away from the UK in the face of diminishing returns.
Peter Nicolai of Nicolai Fruits says: “We served the English market for 15 years but pulled out in 2000. It was a very demanding market for the returns we were getting and it got to the point where we were losing money all the time.
“Countries like Spain and Germany, as well as England, are developing their own soft-fruit industries but we are happy now with the business we are getting in those markets plus countries such as France, Italy and the Baltic States.”
Across the border in Holland, Marin Robertson of Jover - a wholly owned subsidiary of The Greenery - reveals that while the UK remains an important market it is no longer the main buyer of the company’s soft-fruit output.
“We used to depend on the UK market,” says Robertson, “and it is still our biggest export market in soft fruit - but around 60 per cent of our output is now sold to outlets here in the Netherlands so this is now our most important market.
“We still do quite a lot of business in the UK but it’s different to four or five years ago, when they were the biggest buyers of our strawberries. English production now means they normally have more than enough and we fill in the gaps.
“The way we work suits the Dutch supermarkets so we are getting quite a nice market share from them, and France and Germany are also getting better for us because we can send more to those markets in certain periods.”
In contrast to Nicolai Fruits and Jover, the Belgian exporter Vergro has increased its foothold in the UK, though it is in the wholesale sector rather than supermarkets where most of the company’s business lies.
Dominiek Noppe, a director of the Meulebeke based company, says: “The UK market is very good for Belgian strawberries, which make up about 99 per cent of our exports of soft fruit over there along with some blueberries and blackberries.
“We used to supply supermarkets, but they prefer to take English produce because they have everything more under control. We can give good prices to customers though, because we have a very good logistics system and we supply in volume.
“Most of the competition we get from English producers comes in the June/July period but it’s not so much now - and with the quality and quantity of our strawberries better this year than last we are expecting a good 2005.”
Growth in the Belgian soft-fruit industry, led by strawberries, is illustrated by the expansion undertaken in 2004 by REO Veiling, the Roeselare co-operative fruit and vegetable auction whose members include over 300 strawberry growers.
With some producers planting strawberries for the first time - a trend which has continued into 2005 - REO Veiling’s growing area for soft fruit was expanded by 11 per cent last year compared to 2003.
The co-operative’s strawberry growers, who between them are now worth over two million kg of product per annum, are hoping to follow a good 2004 with an even better year after a largely mild autumn and winter with little rain.
The harvest did not start very early due to some frost during the autumn and a reasonably heavy growth, but from the second week of May growers were able to gather those strawberries planted in August 2004 and grown in plastic tunnels.
This is the most popular form of production, while the most common variety of strawberry grown is Elsanta. Eighty-six per cent of production is in Elsanta, with the Darselect variety making up the other 14 per cent.
A small number of growers are experimenting in new varieties and interest in growth on substrate is becoming larger. This trend caused a staggering of supply last year and strawberries were available until Christmas.
Strawberry production certainly seems to have become a financially viable occupation in Belgium over the past few years, with suppliers asserting that one of the main reasons for this is the high quality product on offer.
Strawberries which come out of REO Veiling, for instance, carry the ‘Flandria’ label having been grown in accordance with the stringent requirements of one of Europe’s most highly respected quality marques.
Other soft fruits, such as raspberries, are also sold under the Flandria label at REO Veiling. Although interest in soft fruits other than strawberries is growing, however, the areas of cultivation devoted to them are still quite small.
Of the summer raspberry varieties Tulameen remains the most popular while, reports Ann Van Nieuwenhove of REO Veiling, among the co-operative’s autumn raspberries there’s a slight swing away from Autumn Bliss to Polka.
The REO auction also insists that the recent expansion of the European Union, and in particular the introduction of Poland, has not - as many feared it might - had a detrimental affect on fruit production in Belgium amongst other countries.
Nieuwenhove says: “The cultivation of strawberries in Poland is mainly intended for industry and, although this is slightly different for raspberries, the expansion of the EU has had little influence so far on the production of strawberries in West-Flanders.”
In Holland, as in Belgium, strawberries are the main staple of the soft-fruit industry with other berries and currants grown in much smaller quantities. That situation, however, is beginning to change in the case of the increasingly popular blueberry.
Kees Valstar of Fruit World Breda, which as 50 per cent owner of Blueberry World is responsible for the majority of Holland’s blueberry production, explains: “Three or four years ago we foresaw the increase in demand for blueberries.
“It was happening in Japan and the US and more recently it has happened in Europe, though mainly in the UK. Holland is the main supplier of blueberries to the UK and there has been a tremendous increase in sales there.
“This year we should produce about 1,000 tonnes of Class 1 Dutch blueberries, that’s a major increase in volume and we expect to send 20 to 30 per cent more to the UK than we did last year. The fruit is right on schedule - and it’s looking very good.
“Unlike the situation in the UK, blueberries are virtually a non-selling product in Holland but we are trying to change that - as part of the Dutch Blueberry Collective we are undertaking a two-year promotion campaign in our own country.”
No comments yet