The Strawberry Capital of the World started exporting its products mainly to the United States by sending two trailers every third day, said Jaime Arredondo Salazar, president of the Association of the Strawberry Capital of the World.
Arredondo Salazar said that thanks to the automation of their fields, the most requested strawberries by the US market, particularly Texas, were their Camino Real and San Andrea varieties. He also said that the most requested strawberry had to meet certain requirements such as size, colour and variety. Arredondo Salazar said the Association he headed had one hundred and fifty union members who grew strawberries in six locations in the state, and that the best time to export their product was between November, December and January, although the harvest and shipment of strawberries began in August.
Meanwhile, Eliane Hernandez, CEO of this municipality's Economic Development, said the state had also ventured into the production of raspberry and blackberry, although there were only five or six acres of pilot units for the latter, while there are two hundred acres of raspberry.
The municipal official said that there were more women engaged in the production of strawberries, which had helped reduce migration. In this regard, she said, twenty people worked in a single hectare.
Finally, she noted that the federal and state support for strawberry producers in the entity only amounted to ninety thousand pesos per hectare for those using macro-tunnels, padded and drip irrigation techniques to achieve strawberries of a higher quality and, therefore, the most desirable in the international market.
Source: El Sol de Puebla