"There is no such thing as a perfect strawberry"

Which variety is the perfect strawberry? For years, people have discussed varieties with the best taste, brix, shelf life, firmness, and colour. “It all depends on which property one favours. There is no such thing as a perfect strawberry,” says producer Wim Meyers. “Personally, I prefer the Sonata. Of course, there is no accounting for taste, but every variety has its own target audience. Only the Elsanta is sold in our vending machines. Long fruit bearing varieties such as Harmony look wonderful, but our local customers do not prefer this. They only want strawberries that taste good. Other customers buy varieties based on appearance or firmness.”

At the moment, Meyers Softfruit offers only strawberries. The autumnal harvest of blackberries and raspberries will start in a few weeks. “In soft fruit, we offer red currants, blackberries, and raspberries. The only thing we do not have is the blueberry, but we might grow them in the future. When we invested in new greenhouses two years ago, we installed mobile gutters. This has many advantages; we could easily switch to other small fruit.” The production of soft fruit in greenhouses is quite expensive and not very secure. Wim consciously chose diversification. “The exciting thing is that you never know when it is a good season. One year the raspberries grow better than the blackberries, and another season it is the other way around. Not any one season is the same and that is what makes this occupation wonderful.”

Wim views it as a sport, to supply the first red currants to the auction. It used to be Borgloon, now it is BelOrta. “It is not that hard to be the first of very few growers in Belgium, but I’m still proud of my Wall of Fame,” says Wim. 

He is satisfied with the strawberry season so far. “There is less supply and the prices are high: above 5 Euro per kilogram. We are not really ‘summer producers’. We concentrate on the spring and autumn harvests. Our production kind of remains on the back burner during the summer.” The company Meyers Softfruit comprises about 7 hectares: 2 hectares of greenhouses, 6,000 square metres of tunnels, and 1.5 hectares of roofed strawberry racks. The remaining hectares are used for the growing phase of plant materials (strawberry, raspberry, blackberry, red currant). 

For more information: 

Meyers Softfruit

Allewijstraat 3

B-3770 Riemst (Belgium)