"Well on the road to delivering soft fruit year round"

Since the beginning of March this year, Roberto Latorre has been responsible for delivering soft fruit from Surexport in Almonte, Huelva. From The Greenery offices, on the IABC premises in Breda, the business offers the possibility to package, label, quality control and provide logistic service. Outside of Spain, Surexport have production locations in Morocco, Portugal and a joint venture in Peru, but expansion plans are huge. "We will develop further and become a year round soft fruit deliverer," said Roberto.

"You can see me as an extension of the mother company in Spain. From here we can offer extra services and offer services to new and existing customers. Soft fruit is usually sent directly to supermarket distribution centres following schedules, but at any moment there can be extra volume or other logistical services requested and we can do this easily from this location," explained Roberto.

Besides the domestic market he also focuses on other North European countries. The producer offers a whole soft fruit package, varying from strawberries, to blue berries, blackberries and raspberries. Surexport have their own cultivation area of around 800 hectares and have additional partnerships with affiliated growers, who together represent a further 350 hectares.

"We have two warehouses in Spain where we package soft fruit and we will soon have a fully automated warehouse on one of the largest farms," said Roberto. He explains that during his first weeks working for Surexport large volumes arrived. "The market has been difficult, but last weekend there was unexpected rainfall causing temperatures to fall so production has decreased a little. I expect with the weather in Northern Europe and Easter approaching demand will increase."

Surexport grow the standard varieties of strawberries such as Candonga and Splendor, but have also, in conjunction with PSI, developed new varieties which are distinguished by their taste, shelf life, colour, brix and uniformity.

"This year we began with the Victoria variety which fits perfectly to the wishes of retailers. Soon a major portion of our crop will change over to the Victoria variety and this has been a golden opportunity," concludes Roberto. Surexport offer strawberries in all possible packaging varieties in sizes 10x500 gram, 16x250 gram, 8x500 gram and 1 and 2 kg.

For more information:
Roberto Latorre
Surexport B.V.
IABC 5325
4814 RB Breda
Tel: +31 (0)180-656999
Mob: +31 (0)6-13991223
robertolatorre@surexport.org
www.surexport.org/