For 16 years Special Fruit has had an office in the Spanish soft fruit region Huelva, where they take care of the sourcing of the southern European production. Johan Otto, quality and grower coordinator for the Spanish and Portuguese production showed us around a Spanish growers and their own raspberry cultivation project in Portugal which was started in 2013. "We do a lot more than buying and selling fruit here and want to offer added value to both our suppliers and our final customers."
New strawberry variety
An example of this is the strategic collaboration with the Dutch breeding company Fresh Forward for the cultivation and marketing of a promising new strawberry variety. "When buying a pallet of strawberries in Spain, due to the presence of a lot of small growers, you will get a combination of Candonga, Fortuna and Splendor. A retailer doesn't want this. They want a uniform and high quality product. This new variety has everything it needs to become a real premium variety: it's slightly earlier, has an excellent flavour with a brix above 8 and a juicy sensation, as opposed to the often hard Spanish strawberries. Due to its superior shelf life it is the perfect variety for the trade and it gives the grower an equal production of the main varieties. But you won't find class II in this variety." The variety has been tested among various different Spanish growers over the last few years. Special Fruit is aiming for a volume of 3 million plants for next year with Fresh Forward.
Francisco Marin Toro
One of the growers Special Fruit has the new variety growing at its SAT Algaida Productions, which was created in 2004 through the fusion of two family companies. The company grows strawberries (56%), raspberries (36%), blueberries (6%) and blackberries (2%) on an area of 120 hectares. Manager Francisco Marin Toro is very enthusiastic about the new strawberry variety due to the quality, productivity, shelf life and resistances. "This variety fits well into our philosophy of growing a high quality product in a premium market. Last year we invested in 25 hectares of raspberries and we would like to continue to grow."
Johan Otto en Baldomar Léon (right) of Special Fruit visiting SAT Algaida Productions
Own cultivation projects
The office in Huelva can be seen as the soft fruit centre of Special Fruit regarding the Mediterranean Sea area. The fruit is transported to the main location in the Belgian Lake, where is repackaged, labelled and subject to a final quality control before it finds its way to the European customers. Whereas Special Fruit has worked a lot with set suppliers in Spain, in recent years Johan has also been busy starting up their own cultivation projects in Spain and Portugal. "The retailer wants to know who their supplier is nowadays. With our own cultivation we can control the chain from field to customer."
The increasing greenhouse strawberry cultivation in the Netherlands and Belgium is not yet a threat to the Spanish production, according to commercial manager Baldomar Leon. "We still have our peak in April and May. There aren't many Dutch or Belgian strawberries on the market at that time. But you have to wonder whether a growth like that is good for the entire market situation. During the start of the season, from the end of November, we have more competition from Egypt, Turkey and Israel."
The same strict demands
Special Fruit works mainly with large producers, besides their own cultivation. "These tend to be the growers who have taken the sales into their own hands and want to serve the top segment. The smaller growers tend to stay members of cooperations," explains Johan. "We focus on the top segment, as anyone can fill in the standard." It sometimes frustrates him that people in the north of Europe suggest that the south just messes around. "We have to deal with the same strict retail demands and everything is tested by laboratories." He also believes the Moroccan cultivation has had quite a revival. "This used to be where the lesser quality came from. Now much larger Spanish growers are starting up productions there."
Looking back Baldomar Leon confirms that the raspberry season had a mediocre start and didn't revive a little until after December. Larger volumes are expected around April/March. "The strawberry season started quite strong and the prices went down slightly this month. In the end the price will probably be around 3 Euro." The blueberry season went badly last year, according to Baldomar, after a large increase in production and the blackberry market was also under pressure as a result of foreign competition.
Packaging the raspberries in Portugal
A lot of potential
The difficult start to the raspberry season was a downer for the raspberry cultivation companies Sunshine Fruits and Multiberry in Portugal, which were founded two years ago and of which Special Fruit owns 50%. The company Sunshine has almost 9 hectares. Its packaging station was recently finished. Multiberry is a partnership with plant breeder Gijs Hoogendoorn.
In this Special Fruit also focuses on the top segment with varieties like Kwanza and Kweli. Special Fruit has an exclusive license for Kwanza and Kweli in Portugal. The goal is to scale up the production of Kwanza and Kweli to 100 hectares in three years through collaboration with other Portuguese raspberry growers, as well as their own production.
New packaging station Portugal
"Luckily prices are good at the moment, but the season is almost over. We expect the next harvest from the end of March. We are convinced of the potential that this company has for the fruit production. This is why we have made this large investment."
Portuguese company management
For more information:
Johan Otto
Special Fruit Spain S.L.
Pol. El Agarrobito 44-47
21800 Moguer (Huelva)
Tel: +34 959 37 18 99
Johan.otto@specialfruit.be
www.specialfruit.be