"The quality of Portuguese berries is very similar to that of our Spanish or Moroccan competitors, who start a few weeks before us," explains Carlos Vieira, of the Portuguese company Organic Valleys. They market strawberries which will hit the market in April, as well as a whole range of other berries, mainly blueberries, as well as raspberries, blackberries and currants.
"While the sweetness and quality of our berries is an advantage, our biggest disadvantage is our location, which makes transport more expensive and renders us less competitive in Europe against Spain. Later, from July, our biggest competitor is Poland, which usually floods the market with berries."
Organic Valleys connects Portuguese producers with buyers in the rest of Europe, mainly in the United Kingdom, France, the Netherlands, Norway and Finland. "We work with both conventional and organic products, although our goal in the medium term is to work exclusively with organic products," explains Carlos Vieira.
Portuguese passion fruit against overseas imports
Passion fruit is an exotic fruit which, just like the kiwi, is gaining ground in Portugal. "These are the fruits that differ most in terms of quality from other products grown in Europe. The marketing campaigns carried out by nurseries to promote passion fruit are having an impact in Portugal, and at the same time, producers are happy with the margins they get," affirms Carlos Vieira.
"Customers like our passion fruit so much, that this year we are going to double our shipments, mainly to supermarkets in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands," he states. Just like kiwifruit, passion fruit is produced in central and northern Portugal.
For more information:
Carlos Vieira
Organic Valleys
T: 00351-914 877 230
T: 00351-917 649 930
organicvalleys@gmail.com