Herefordshire-based S&A Produce has secured exclusive plant rights for the strawberry variety Fleurette in the UK.
The deal has come about following a ten-year working relationship with Dutch breeding programme and plant producer Goossens Flevoplant, which has seen S&A trialling various Flevoplant varieties over the years.
Roger Vogels, S&A’s director of soft fruit growing, said: “We have chosen Fleurette because it is an ideal variety to use for the early production of fruit in our glasshouses, allowing us to be able to start harvesting the strawberries in February.”
Breeder Marcel Suiker explained the strategy to focus on early short-day, late short-day and day-neutral varieties for a continuous fruit supply throughout the season. “Fleurette is an exciting early short day variety to start the season, he said. 'It combines taste, appearance, stability and yield and therefore it is a perfect example of consumer, retail and growers’ preference.”
Jos Goossens, of Flevoplant, said: “This agreement will make the partnership between ourselves and S&A even stronger, and is founded upon S&A’s capability to launch new varieties into the UK market.
'Consumers worldwide now want to eat strawberries at any time of the year and the growing properties of a variety such as Fleurette make this possible.”
Next year, several million Fleurette plants will be grown at S&A sites across the UK.
