Spain battles through tough season

This was probably one of the most difficult seasons in recent times. There are several reasons for this. Firstly and probably most importantly there was no consistency of good weather throughout the season. This meant that it was very difficult to get good quality strawberries. What made matters worse was the exchange rate with the Euro. We found ourselves at times in a situation where there was a defecit of up to 20% in prices compared to the previous season. Niche markets such as Norway, Denmark, Belgium, Holland and Switzerland began to emerge and become increasingly more attractive than in previous seasons. The fact that Germany continues to have en conomic crisis was significant in the sense that it did not absorb its usual quota of fruit and Morocco turned on the pressure offering early fruit to compete with Spain.

As for ourselves, we were more interested in getting the right quality as opposed to quantity. In early February, some UK multiples decided to go on promotion. unfortunately, their growers in Spain and the importers miscalculated the volume due to the adverse weather conditions. The growers in Spain moaned that they were forced to promote at too low prices and an emergency meeting was set up by freshuelva inviting all the key players to attend. We came our of the meeting unscathed making it very clear that our growers has communicated to us that there was no volume of good fruit to do a promotion and ASDA listened and between ourslves we made the right decision not to do so. This is a very important point because the relationship between WellPict and ASDA is much closer than our competitors.

It has already been confirmed that there will be less strawberries planted next year. This can only be good. Let us hope that we have better weather next season and that Britain joins the Euro sooner or later!!!

Regarding the strawberry conference organised by OTRI (Association of Innovation and technology) in Huelva on the 20th May, Steven Nelson gave a very informative speech regarding all the Well-Pict varieties. The main Well-Pict variety that has been successful with out growers in the past few years is the BG 633 (honor) which is well suited to the growing conditionss in Huelva using high tunnels, and significantly produces a high yield. If this variety continues to perform well it could become a serious threat to the Camarosa. A lot of our growers are investing in such varieties as Festival & Ventana which are early varieties & don't have the problem of misshaping like Camarosa in the early part of the season.

Summer 2003