Spanish review

Strawberries

The 2004 strawberry season has been quite different to previous seasons. There were more varieties on offer than the usual quota of camarosa and it was a learning curve for both growers and suppliers. This is the first season where we have had so many alternative varieties to offer and at the end of the season it became clear which varieties worked and which did not.

The varieties that stood out the best in terms of shape, flavour and shelf life were sabrosa, Festival, Honour, and Camarosa which still works well in Spain when growin in bags. This season has helped immensely in order to plan the forthcoming one. For the first time we are explaining to our growers why we want certain varieties instead of them growing what they think is best for us. In previous years it has been difficult to plan a season knowing that there was only one variety on offer that could peak in production at certain times of the year and then dramatically decline causing too much fluctuation and headaches for everyone involved in terms of availability and price. This year, around 90% of our production was in high tunnels which is just as well when you consider that it rained on and off throughout the season (approximately half of the total production in Huelva is in high tunnels). Next season we will continue to identify and implement further cost reduction methods to assist our growers in becoming more efficient.

Cherries
This has probably been the most difficult season in terms of quality and availability. Unfortunately the cherry production was very late starting and once the season began, the production in all growing areas in Spain coincided. However we were successful in pinpointing the best growers and we packed a lot of cherries at source in 250g punnets which saved costs as opposed to sending it as loose product and doing all the packing in the UK. Next season in order to further reduce costs we are studying the possibility of using a 500g punnet.

Well-Pict European Spain Exports Picotas to South Africa
"The Picota season has been the lowest in terms of production for many seasons but demand in the UK has also been moderate" comments Edward Grieve from Well-Pict European Spain (WPE Spain). Nevertheless WPE Spain has opened up tade for the first time with their Well-Pict partners in South Africa., namely the 1910 Fruit Box Company, so far they have air freighted two shipments of cherries and picotas. "SA has liked the product so much if volumes are back to normal next season, we will be able to make more sendings", in the future WPE Spain will plan to send by air and by boat on containers using Tectrol.

Summer 2004