Shereen Serry, Export Sales specialist at Pico says, "We continue to be aligned with worldwide breeders, covering the most up to date varietal developments and we hold master licensees to several of them. We currently have commercially available varieties that are very appealing to the consumer when it comes both to flavor as well as static quality parameters." Pico continue to be aligned with some of the world’s most prominent technical experts in order to bring the most up to date technological advances into their operation. The company has also introduced methods to enhance production and to bring on the crop earlier and avoid soil-born diseases, further more they are in the process of introducing tabletop production using artificial media in order to further enhance production and meet market requirements.
Pico expects to increase strawberry production by 40% in the Autumn of this year, stating that varieties from the University of Florida and the Red Eva have performed exceptionally well. They are also trialling blueberry and raspberry varieties.
At the moment Pico has 150 hectares dedicated to strawberries, both the nurseries and commercial production use solely solarization to sterilize the growing areas. The company has entirely phased out the use of Methyl Bromide and introduced integrated plant protection maximising the use of natural predators and minimising use of pesticides.
According to Ms Sherry, "Sales have been slower than previous years specially in Europe, it seems that the recession is lingering now from 2008 or at least we’ve felt strong effects of it this season. We think Asia in general is a very promising and strong potential market, it’s the new Europe and USA. We’re in the process of exporting to several Asian countries, we have been exporting to South Africa and will hopefully start exporting to Eastern Europe."
The revolution only affected business a few days shortly after January 28th, 2011 explains Ms Sherry, this due to port workers striking in several ports in Egypt, "it’s fine now and there are no problems whatsoever, occasional strikes at the ports every now and then but nothing major that affects business too much."
For more information:
Shereen Serry
PICO
Egypt
Tel: +202 2737 1000
Fax: +202 2736 2409
Mob: +20 11 1033 3145
sh.serry@picoagriculture.com
www.picoagriculture.com