2003 Spanish Season

The main difference between this season (2003) and the last at this present time is that raspberries seem to be more plentiful and strawberries have started to produce earlier. Unfortunately we are in the middle of a rainy-cold snap that has hampered production to a certain extent. We are also noticing that a lot of growers wish to commit a large part of their export class one production to us as they realise how important Well-Pict European has become to them. For example we have two important growers, Surexport and Sol Condado who are both carrying out the EurepGAP audits this month, as requested by ourselves. Both also now own the land on which they produce which means that they are not restricted in developing and investing. Some of these investments are computerised irrigation systems, purposely built field toilets (until now they have been portable) and carrying out the large scale trials with the WellPict Inc varieties in order to have a competitive edge.

Variety 633 in a trial of hydroponics

Production in Huelva this year is similar to 2002. The official figures produced by Freshuelva is 7,110 hectares. This year there is a slight decrease in strawberries but raspberry production is on the up. The productive areas continue to be Moguer, Palos, Almonte and El Rocio where as Cartaya, Lepe and Ayamonte have witnessed a significant decline in quality and qualtity. In that area we have only chosen to concentrate on one grower who has hydroponic production, namely Corchito. We also intend to focus more on Surfruit's production in Cadiz which we believe can be an alternative production to the Huelva region in terms of prolonging the season. Agromoguer continues to be very committed to us and is already planning a hydroponic production to compliment his existing outdoor production.

Variety 633 in uncovered raised beds

This season we plan to do a lot more blueberries, blackberries and organic strawberries in order to meet the demand in the UK. Once again growers are approaching us in order to commit themselves to us. With regards to labour, we do not foresee this as a problem as the growers last year successfully contracted legal immigrants from Eastern Europe and they will continue to do the same this year.

Variety 625 in uncovered raised beds

Together with El Pinar we are closely monitoring all the variety trials, the pictures show variety 633 in a trial of hydroponics . In this trial the 633 tastes better than Camarosa and Cartuno growin in the same area. The 633 and 625 is about a week away from its first pickings but all the early indications show that the plants are healthy. The 269 will produce slightly later and Surexport for example has not covered this particular variety well considering all the rain we have recently had.

Spring 2003