"From mid-January, demand for soft fruit already higher than supply"

There has already been talk of shortages in the soft fruit market for a while. "The year started with yet another reasonable production, but as of mid-January, supply is low and prices are high. The raspberry supply is especially limited. This also applies to strawberries, although volumes are now set to increase. Due to the earlier start of the campaign, the price of strawberries has been slightly lower than last year, but it has remained stable for a long time already. In terms of quality, the campaign is developing without any issues," explains Roberto Latorre, of the Spanish soft fruit producer Surexport, from Almonte, Huelva.

The overall trend in Huelva for many producers is the switch to the cultivation of raspberries and blueberries, but for its part, Surexport has actually expanded its strawberry production this year. "This is the result of the success of many years of investments in our exclusive varieties. The decision to choose such varieties appears to have been a good one and has given us the ability to grow at a time when the global strawberry acreage is being reduced."

Cultivation in Morocco also appears to be on the rise and this will continue for the time being, explains Roberto. "We also have our own crops in Morocco and Kenya. At the moment, we are working with raspberries from our growing project in Kenya and we'll continue focusing on our line of exclusive varieties from Spain and Morocco. Cultivation in Kenya is going really well. In terms of quality, it is a fine product, but it is also subject to shortages. We expect higher volumes again in mid-April."

Blueberries
In recent months, Surexport has been importing blueberries from Chile. "Last week, we received the last container and we'll now continue the season with Morocco and Spain, which will supply the fruit until the end of May. The Chilean season was pretty good. In the beginning, prices were sky-high and many shipments arrived by air; later, the market sunk a little and there was some pressure on prices, but in any case, our programs developed really well," concludes Roberto.

For more information:
Roberto Latorre
Surexport
Hazeldonk 6548
4836 LD Breda, The Netherlands
Tel: 0180-454940
robertolatorre@surexport.org
www.surexport.org