Superb Sabrosa

Perched on the rugged coastline of western Portugal, surrounded by national park nestles a gem of Iberian strawberry production. Well-Pict European Farms is the only UK grower producing in Portugal and their team seems to have set the standard as far as Iberian fruit goes for the 2005 season. The strawberry farm occupies 250 acres they have four varieties planted for commercial crops and a number of trials being undertaken. The 100 acres of wooden Portuguese green houses that were present when Well-Pict European took over the farm have all been replaced with the latest in WET designed tunnels and considerable investment has also been made in irrigation and blast cooling facilities.

This is the first year the farm has grown Sabrosa (pictured above) commercially and the variety has proved to be a huge success for them, so much so that they will be reducing the  number of varieties grown next year to just Sabrosa and PS 592 (Endurance). The additional planting will increase the farms output by at least 50%, of which all the class I will be destined for the UK market. MD Garry Mercer is confident that Sabrosa is the right cultivar to offer a quality roduct for UK customers, the variety owned by Planasa and sometimes referred to as Candonga is characterised by its great fruit quality, outstanding
taste, and high consistency which allows it to travel well. Mercer says “it’s received a warm welcome from a British market tired of Iberian Camarosa”. The farm produces approx 85% class I (UK spec) from their Sabrosa crop compared to approx 65% class I on the Camarosa. The fruit destined for the UK has been achieving constantly high scores based on customer specifications; with consignments regularly exceeding customer specifications. Mercer thinks it unfortunate that price pressures have forced other Iberian growers to supply poor quality fruit and that the consumers may be getting the wrong impression of varieties like Sabrosa, which he feels Well-Pict European Portugal has proved is an excellent export product if grown and retailed correctly. Mercer believes that WPE Portugal is the best grower and supplier in Iberia and that their emphasis on quality has allowed AMS to consistently be able to pay premium prices as there are no on costs, due to the quality being so high.

The farms other dominant variety is PS 592 (Endurance) the majority of which is destined for the French market with a small percentage for Holland. Picking of 592 commenced at the start of April with volumes increasing week by week, this is the first product to carry the Well-Pict European brand with 2kg loose product being sold in a new branded box. At Runges market, Gariguette remains the favourite variety with Well-Pict European 592 a close second. As volumes increase a 10 x 250 and 10 x 500 branded product will be added to the 2kg loose currently available.

Although Portugal did not suffer as much as Spain at the start of the year in terms of weather, they still experienced excessive cold temperatures, the farm registered –2 for 10 consecutive nights, something unheard of on the west coast of Portugal. Due to this the plants have not performed according to plan and they are still picking under the expected volume per plant. At the start of April pressure from lack of labour meant they were picking under expected volumes, however additional labour sources for May will see daily volumes increasing and this will be maintained throughout June. As well as having to contend with quality issues at the start of the season due to the cold snaps, Portugal is in the middle of a drought, during March and April this meant birds that would normally have migrated south caused extensive damage to the fruit, taking a liking to the seeds and leaving the damaged fruit on the plant. However, since April demand from the UK, Norway and France has outstripped supply which bode well for their plans to increase production for nextyear. Expansion plans don’t end with next season, they intend to expand annually until they reach maximum strawberry production. At the same time they are entering into a partnership in Spain and purchasing land to enable them to develop their production, particularly in raspberries and blueberries. As it stands WPE Portugal is ahead of its business plan and aims to be producing and supplying 20million Euros worth of berry fruits to northern Europe by 2008.

Spring 2005