More than 1,000 professionals will participate in the III International Soft Fruit Congress, which will be held, starting tomorrow until Thursday, at the Casa Colon Conference Center. The event will be attended by more than 50 companies, 42 exhibitors and it will have four congress activity areas.
The president of Freshuelva, Alberto Garrocho, said that, once again, the congress, which will be a meeting point for analysis and study of the berry market, had a bigger attendance than they had expected.
According to Garrocho, the soft fruit sector's concerns, issues of interest, and future applications would be discussed at the congress. The president of Freshuelva insisted that "this third edition of the congress is very special for the Capital of Huelva. It is a unique opportunity to promote the variety and quality of our products, protected by the Huelva brand."
Antonio Garrigues Walker, president of the Garrigues Foundation, will deliver the inaugural conference regarding The global market.
As an innovation, this year, the congress organized by Freshuelva is sponsored by Fruit Attraction, Madrid, and Fruit Logistica, Berlin. "Their support and collaboration is a great impulse to this congress that was born in Huelva. It encourages us to continue working to advance our vocation of being the most important soft fruit international event," said Garrocho.
In this edition, the event will feature speakers from Chile and Peru, which will exchange agricultural experiences, within the celebration of the 525th Anniversary of the Discovery of America, the Encounter Between Two Worlds. Two of the presentations scheduled focus on blueberry consumption trends in European and Asian markets, the cultivation of this fruit in Peru, its marketing, and future expectations. One of the event's goals is having the experience of these two countries in this matter, as there's been an excess of production of blueberries in the province of Huelva.
In the two previous editions, the event focused on the diversification of strawberry varieties. In this year's edition, the sector expects to reach conclusions to control blueberry production and determine marketing strategies.
With the collaboration of Fruit Logistica, on Wednesday there will be two presentations regarding berry consumption in the United Kingdom and its future in the brexit, and consumption of berries in Germany, its evolution, expectations, as well as the production and marketing of French strawberries. The afternoon is dedicated to commercial presentations. There will be a cooking show in the gardens of the Casa Colon.
The distribution, the functioning of the industry, the quality of the product, the application of new technologies and the healthy and nutritious qualities of soft fruits (consumption benefits, such as the prevention of cardiovascular diseases), will be other topics that will be discussed in presentations and round tables.
The Mayor of Huelva, Gabriel Cruz, stated that "the celebration of this congress in the capital is a special occasion that demonstrates the organizational capacity of our city and of our companies. It is a unique opportunity to further the strategy of the province's most important sector, which accounts for 95% of national production, and which is a clear example of the Huelva brand in the world."
He also said that he was "proud that the city, which, as the Spanish Capital of Gastronomy, became the international capital of berries for a few days, as this sector and Freshuelva had been decisive to obtain that title."
The opening of the international congress was attended by the mayor and the president of Freshuelva, the President of the Caja Rural, Jose Luis Garcia-Palacios Alvarez; The director general of Health of the Agrarian Production of the Ministry of Agriculture, Valentin Almansa de Lara; and the new Minister of Agriculture, Rodrigo Sánchez Haro. The congress is supported by Huelva's City Council and the Provincial Council of Huelva, and the exclusive main sponsorship of the Caja Rural del Sur Foundation, following the signing of an agreement.
A similar strawberry production with higher prices
The harvest campaign for the strawberry is over. The president of Freshuelva, Alberto Garrocho, made a first balance of the harvest yesterday stating that it had been good and satisfactory, as the production was similar to the previous one, prices were stable and on the rise. Garrocho said that there had been no high production peaks, so it had been absorbed by the market. He also said that prices had increased by 10 to 12% over the previous season. The production will amount to nearly 300 million kilos of strawberry. The last weeks of harvest have focused on the fruit destined to the industry, which showed some improvement this year as producers didn't have to pick up fruit for the industry at any other moment in the campaign. In mid-May, production began in other European countries, such as France and Germany. Garrocho said he had never seen a similar campaign in the forty years he has been in the sector.
Source: huelvainformacion.es