Spanish co-op, Coophuelva, has closed the 2015/2016 campaign, with 18,603 tonnes of berries for a value of €56 million, which represents a growth of 5% compared to the previous season.
As reported on freshplaza.es, growth occurred despite the incidence of Phytophthora, which caused a loss of 40% of the early production. Overall, the disease resulted in a loss of between 20,000 to 40,000 tonnes of strawberries per hectare.
Coophuelva has decided to reduce the planted surface, destined to strawberries for the next season, going from 17 million plants to 11 million.
The space taken from the strawberries will be given to other berries such as blueberries, raspberries and blackberries, which continue to grow in sales, volume and planted surface.
Blueberries are the fastest growing with, 4,600 tonnes produced this season (20% more than the previous year), followed by raspberries with 2,800 tonnes (10% more) and blackberries with 250 tonnes (100% more).
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Gabriela Guédez. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
