The first technical day of the Third International Soft Fruits Congress focused on the production and marketing of berries in different countries, such as Chile and France, as well as on the consumption of soft fruits in the United Kingdom and in Germany. The event was inaugurated by the president of Freshuelva, Alberto Garrocho, the president of the Caja Rural del Sur, Jose Luis Garcia-Palacios; the vice president of Huelva's Regional Government, Jose Luis Ramos, the Director General of Agrarian Production of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment, Valentin Almansa de Lara; the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development of the Board of Andalucia, Rodrigo Sanchez Haro; and the mayor of Huelva, Gabriel Cruz.
The president of Freshuelva, Alberto Garrocho, said the sector was greatly satisfied to get together for the third edition of an event that has exceeded all expectations, with more than 1,000 participants and a clear international vocation.
Garrocho thanked the sponsors of the Congress for their clear commitment to an event that, once again, "has managed to capture in its program all the concerns and future challenges of all the agents involved in soft fruits."
In turn, the president of Caja Rural del Sur, Jose Luis Garcia-Palacios Alvarez, said that this entity had supported the soft fruit sector since its inception, and that it supported the Congress in order to continue building the future of Huelva's agriculture.
In this sense, he asked the institutions to truly commit to solve the water problem in the county and the sector to "continue growing in an organized manner, facing all challenges with courage and reaching all of its goals."
According to the vice president of the Huelva's Regional Government, Jose Luis Ramos, this is an important congress for the economy of the province of Huelva "because thanks to the collaborative work of companies and institutions we have achieved making the soft fruit sector of the province of Huelva known at the national and international level for its quality, diversification, and sustainable agriculture."
He stressed that the Regional Government had worked hand in hand with the sector - with support such as the Strategic Plan of the Province of Huelva and the Huelva Business Office - to achieve the implementation of new technologies that, applied to production and fruit processing, "have resulted in achievements we are proud of, such as being a leader in the production of soft fruits throughout Europe."
The Director General of Agrarian Production of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment, Valentin Almansa, said that the history of the soft fruit sector was a story of success sustained by its enormous development in a very short time.
Almansa stated that Huelva had proven it was a modern, competitive, and innovative province in the international agricultural sector, and encouraged producers to "continue on a path that has to lead to an important future."
In turn, Rodrigo Sanchez Haro, the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Rural Development, said that the soft fruit sector was one of the agricultural sectors that had progressed the most in the last decades, making the province of Huelva one of the main berries production areas in the world.
In addition to highlighting its great exporting vocation, he valued "the constant work being done by this sector, investing in research, implanting early varieties, introducing practices of integrated production, or concentrating the supply in large organizations of producers and cooperatives." He also said that Andalusia's soft fruit exports during the current season (from September to April, the last month for which data are available) had achieved a new historical record of over 770 million euro, i.e. 18% more than In the same period of the last campaign.
Finally, the Mayor of Huelva, Gabriel Cruz, highlighted the enormous opportunity to promote and project Huelva through a congress that is being held "at the best moment possible, as this year Huelva is the Gastronomic Capital of Spain." In this sense, he encouraged farmers to rely on the city, as it would always make available all of its tools to the sector.
The president of the Garrigues Foundation, Antonio Garrigues Walker, who was presented by the director of the Caja Rural del Sur Foundation, Guillermo Tellez, was in charge of opening the presentation cycle of the Third International Congress of Soft Fruits.
Antonio Garrigues
Huelva's higher potential in Spain
The president of the Garrigues Foundation said this was one of the most exciting moments in history, as everybody was facing the same problems so we all had to work on globalization, modernization and innovation because we were disturbing and insecure times coming.
Garriges said that it was difficult to find another province with more growth potential than Huelva, especially in the mining, tourism and agricultural sectors. He also said that they had opted to work to duplicate their capacity and to continue generating good education.
In this context, Garrigues said that "we are headed to a world with political and sociological changes that affect consumption and the economy, a world in which people want new ideas and values and where the competition in economic activities is going to increase more and more strongly." He stressed that competition forces them to react and, therefore, "the best solution is to incorporate artificial intelligence and imitate the best."
He then criticized Spanish foreign policy for not deepening ties with countries that, in the case of agriculture with America, "we should work with and imitate more because they have given us all kinds of examples." He also said it seemed it was politically scary to look at the global world.
Technical presentations
The technical presentations on the opening day of the Congress focused on international examples in the treatment and marketing of berries from countries such as Chile, France, the United Kingdom, and Germany.
Charif Christian Carvajal
Charif Christian Carvajal, marketing director of the Association of Fruit Exporters of Chile (Asoex), spoke about the enormous potential of this South American country, whose fruit is consumed by more than 82 million people per day in the world. Carvajal said that Chile was the world's largest exporter of blueberries, with more than 100,000 tons, and the main exporter of fresh fruit in the Southern Hemisphere. Thus, this country's example can serve as a reference for the strategies to be followed by other berry producing countries.
The representative of Asoex said that the blueberries had an immense potential, as there were many markets that didn't fully know this product, such as India, so there was a huge road ahead. He also said that the keys to promoting blueberry were based on generating interest in consumers, identifying consumer segments and new occasions for it (such as parties and celebrations), working with retailers, and conducting flexible promotional actions.
The example of France
The Congress also focused on France, thanks to the presentation by Xavier Mas and Caroline Granado, president and manager of the National Association of Strawberry Producers from France (AOPn Fraises de France), respectively.
Xavier Mas
Mas said that in 2016 France produced more than 58,000 tons of strawberries, i.e. 4.5% of all the strawberry produced in Europe, and that production had been progressively increasing since 2010, thanks to the creation the Association, various quality brands, and a commitment to innovative crops. In this sense, he said that the future of the sector was linked to "the development of a technique to respond to the demands of the market, and to the many efforts they made with new materials."
Caroline Granado
In turn, Caroline Granado spoke about the current consumption of strawberries in France, which focuses on a very young public, to the point that it has become the favorite fruit of children and the second most purchased product in supermarkets.
According to Granado, strawberry consumption in France has a big future, given the current data (2 kilos per person per year) and the characteristics of this production, which has a stable consumption.
The Brexit menace
The Congress also focused on the threat that Brexit poses to the berries markets. Drew Reynolds, a representative of the British company Total Produce, stated that the main threat to the berry industry in the UK was the country's exit from the European Union and how it is managed.
Drew Reynolds
The reasons are clear: the British production of berries depends on immigrant labor, the majority stock of plants comes from Europe, and the current all year round availability of berries in the market is due to imports from Spain and the Netherlands.
Reynolds called for swift and mutually co-operative negotiations between the UK and the EU, so as to reach an agreement that would not harm any of the parties involved in the berries sector.
The representative of Total Produce said that if everything continued to go as good as it's going, by 2020 the UK's berry production could exceed 2,000 million pounds, which shows that consumers are betting on healthy and quality products.
The German market
Finally, on its first day, the Congress also focused on the German market. Teunis Sikma, CEO of Quality and Development of Frutania, a large company that connects farmers with the supermarkets in Germany, spoke about the German market and berry consumption.
Teunis Sikma
Sikma said that strawberry consumption in Germany had been declining in recent years, while consumption of other berries, notably blueberries, had grown. The problem with strawberries, he said, is that they have a very high peak of consumption concentrated in the month of July. On the other hand, the rest of the berries were more stable throughout the year.
Thus, he said, the goal is to break their seasonality and understand that the German market is very traditional and always seeks quality and closeness above all else. "Many producers are 15 kilometers away from the supermarkets, so the product they offer is fresh and consumers don't mind paying more for it."
Sikma said it was fundamental "to invest in production varieties and packaging improvements, and that farmers and supermarkets should work together, because the berries are more than just a business, they are a business between people that needed to generate confidence and certainty."
