Huelva's berry campaign is in full swing. This year, the area of strawberries in the province remains the same while the area of blueberries increases slightly with new varieties that cover the early gap. Meanwhile, the acreage dedicated to raspberries has fallen in general. However, this is not the case for one of the leading producing companies of this berry.
“We have increased the raspberry acreage by 20% with our program of exclusive varieties. In fact, to date, we have marketed around 70% more raspberries than last year," stated Carlos Esteve, the commercial director of Onubafruit. "It is true that in Huelva the raspberry acreage is decreasing and it is gradually moving to Morocco, where, despite having logistical disadvantages when compared to Spain, production costs are lower and their competition is increasingly more important for the Spanish raspberry, as it comes out on similar dates.”
"But this is not our case," Carlos Esteve added. “Our farmers continue to have good results and we have well-defined varieties on the market. This could be a reflection of being well positioned in production and carrying out good management. At the moment, this campaign is going well for us, despite a couple of weeks in November in which there was a lot of Moroccan and Spanish production. The results have been satisfactory since the beginning of 2022.”
The company has already sold 4,000 tons so far in the campaign, which began in September, and expects to reach around 13,000 tons by the end of the year.
"New extra-early blueberry varieties to cover gaps where there was no production"
"Production is increasing all over the world and we still have to see how we'll position ourselves in the future," he stated. “Last season, there was a balanced demand and supply. Last year, producers were able to better control the production peaks in the months in which they used to occur and, therefore, there wasn't too much supply at the same time. Its consumption still has growth potential, in some countries more than in others. It is a crop that continues to offer good returns to farmers and that is why it continues to grow, although not at the levels of previous years."
Onubafruit is harvesting and marketing the first blueberries of its variety program this campaign, a project that is beginning to bear fruit after several years of work in its trial fields.
"This campaign we are already producing the first blueberries, although in limited quantities. The program has 6 new varieties, focused on the first part of the campaign. Some are extra early varieties. We harvested one of them on dates that were not possible before in Huelva, at the end of November. We seek to produce at times when there is not much production and improve the quality of the product at times when we are already producing. In this period, we compete with South American blueberries, although we enjoy competitive advantages in logistics and have a lower carbon footprint. The rest of the varieties that we'll be able to offer this year will be harvested until April," Esteve added. "We have already started research to obtain varieties for the second part of the campaign in the future."
"The profitability of strawberries is increasingly in question"
Strawberries are the product with the highest volume for this company and where the rise in production costs is most noticeable.
"The strawberry is a commodity that is on all supermarket shelves. Its cultivation is becoming more and more questionable in Huelva, since its profitability has suffered in recent years. If we take into account production costs, the problems in finding labor – especially because it is the hardest berry to harvest –, and this crops greater need for water resources, it seems it's not profitable enough to plant it. As a result, there seems to be increasing interest in hydroponic cultivation, although it is still not very representative in Huelva,” Carlos Esteve stated.
The volumes sold in this campaign are greater than last year when the sector felt the effects of storm Filomena. "Prices are right, although perhaps we are not fully aware of how much production and packaging costs are rising. The price of certain packaging materials changes every week. There could be surprises throughout the campaign,” he added.
More information:
Onubafruit S.Coop.And.
T: +34 959 540 844
onubafruit@onubafruit.com
www.onubafruit.com