"Focus on quality and sector consolidation to promote Spanish strawberries"

FreshPlaza had the opportunity to visit the facilities of Fresón de Palos, which, with 124 active members and an annual volume of about 72,000 tonnes of strawberries, has established itself as the largest strawberry cooperative in Europe and leader in the Spanish market, with a market share of around 30%. The cooperative exports about 45% of its production to the domestic market; something unusual, considering that most cooperatives and companies ship about 90% of their production. The largest destination for the remaining 55% is Germany, followed by France, the UK and Italy.

A noteworthy aspect about the campaign compared to that of 2013/2014 is the near 10% decline in planting, due largely to the poor results recorded in terms of prices," explains Jaime Zaforas, Marketing Manager of Fresón de Palos.

"Maybe it has taken the sector several campaigns to realise that we would eventually suffer from oversupply as a result of our own growth and that of cultivation in our destination countries," explains Jaime. "In 2011, there was a significant increase in planting, with a higher production volume that the markets had the capacity to absorb successfully in the 2012 campaign, but not in 2013, when the quality problems caused by bad weather quite likely prevented us from seeing other causes for the drop in sales, such as the slowdown in consumption and growth in production in central Europe; factors that have finally been observed in 2014, when prices had not reached the expected levels, despite offering a high quality product.

European countries like Belgium, France and the Netherlands have also grown in volume taking advantage of their strategic geographical position.

In the words of Jaime Zaforas: "We have always perceived Morocco as the greatest competitor, as it starts a little earlier than us, and perhaps we have not paid enough attention to Europe. The Netherlands has a unique strategic position and is able to sell fruit to many key markets in just a few hours. This competitive advantage and its commitment to taste become noticeable when they enter the market, in April. Germany, for example, tends to import less and less Spanish fruit and switch to Dutch strawberries during the last stages of our campaign."

"In Huelva, we produce strawberries of the highest quality thanks to the knowledge we have after decades of experience. We run what is possibly the world's most advanced strawberry production system in every stage," he explains.

"Another possible solution to preventing production peaks and saturation could be to advance the campaigns, just like it was done in the past, even before Morocco took over this market, although to achieve this the sector would first have to consolidate; producers would need to work together."

Part of the success of Fresón de Palos is due to its specialising in strawberries, as well as its brand-development, which has given the brand a great reputation amongst consumers. There is also a commitment to diversification, with the recent introduction of blueberries and raspberries as a complement to strawberries, which remain the cooperative's flagship product.

In fact, statistics show that strawberry consumption has stabilised over the past three years, while that of blueberries and raspberries is on the rise.