"The quality of Portuguese berries is very similar to that of our Spanish or Moroccan competitors, who start a few weeks before us," explains Carlos Vieira, of the Portuguese company Organic Valleys. They market strawberries which will hit the market in April, as well as a whole range of other berries, mainly blueberries, as well as raspberries, blackberries and currants.
"While the sweetness and quality of our berries is an advantage, our biggest disadvantage is our location, which makes transport more expensive and renders us less competitive in Europe against Spain. Later, from July, our biggest competitor is Poland, which usually floods the market with berries."
Organic Valleys connects Portuguese producers with buyers in the rest of Europe, mainly in the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Norway and Finland. "We work with both conventional and organic products, although our goal in the medium term is to work exclusively with organic products," explains Carlos Vieira.
For more information:
Carlos Vieira
Organic Valleys
T: 00351-914 877 230
T: 00351-917 649 930
organicvalleys@gmail.com