Norway: Raspberry production moves to old greenhouses
The project was launched in 2009. By moving raspberry cultivation to greenhouses instead of the open ground, the fruits ripen faster. This means that the foreign raspberry now has competition from a Norwegian contender.
With horticulture, the Norwegian season can be extended by two months. Use is made of old greenhouses, which still work well. Also, the greenhouse plants are much higher than if they had been grown outside.
The old greenhouses were previously used for tomatoes, but when they were no longer profitable, the raspberries moved in instead. The old greenhouses are not energy efficient enough to cultivate tomato or cucumber. Growing raspberries was one of the challenging alternatives. It was by no means easy, because of the fragility of the fruit. Now that the greenhouse cultivation of raspberries is encouraging, growers are trying to achieve enhanced quality.
"This involves a lot of patience and experimentation," says Wigg. "Over the years we have not always been successful. We often had to rely on our creativity. Increasing the quality and quantity of our fruit is now our first objective. It does look very promising, I must say.”