Fresgarrido has reached an agreement with Camposol to distribute and market its Peruvian blueberries in Europe.
According to the head of Fresgarrido, Jose Antonio Garrido, this collaboration is the first of its kind in the strawberry sector in the province of Huelva.
Garrido said the business relationship with Camposol only officially began this October, so "it is too early to determine the volume of merchandise that will reach the company stores in Palos de la Frontera". The blueberries, he said, will be transported in containers and downloaded at the nearest airport and at the port of Algeciras. However, he said, "we are trying to get the ships to stop at the port of Huelva."
The Camposol group expects to achieve an export volume of 13,000 tons this year, and it harvests most of its volume (80%) between August and December, even though the season lasts until March. Right now they have 1,000 hectares of blueberry in production, which will increase by 600 hectares once the campaign comes to an end.
Strawberry campaign
Regarding the 2016-2017 strawberry season, Jose Antonio Garrido, said that Fresgarrido had increased its surface by 5%, from 160 hectares to about 180 hectares. 60% of the seven million plants that will be used this season are of the Fortuna variety, while the rest are Primoris.
Fresgarrido has about 35 hectares devoted to blueberries (with nearly 100,000 trees), 2.5 hectares for blackberries (15,000 plants) and half a hectare to test raspberry crops, where they have about 2,000 plants.
According to Jose Antonio Garrido, product diversification is necessary because "the profit margins from strawberry are increasingly smaller and making mistakes costs money. Therefore, nowadays its impossible to sustain a company with like ours with one single product. We have to try other options."
"We are expanding the farm so that in three or four years we can start working with tropical fruit plantations, such as papaya and mango, as well as peaches and pomegranates. I think it's necessary to have a small expansion of these new crops because they are the future." he added.
Source: agrodiariohuelva.es