The traditional New Year's reception for the soft fruit industry has come to an end. On Wednesday during the Dutch Strawberry Day and on Thursday during the International Soft Fruit Conference, which included turning our attention to the blackberry, blueberry and raspberry, the exhibition hall in Den Bosch, the Netherlands, was once again well filled.
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More stable supply
The market is looking for a more stable supply of soft fruit, and the industry is innovating in an attempt to answer this demand, considering weather conditions, higher labor and input costs to name only a few of the challenges.
One of the big breakthroughs expected in the upcoming years is the switch from tray-plants to strawberries grown from seed, achieving more consistent plants. Breeding companies like ABZ Seeds, Netherlands, and the Miyoshi Group, Japan, have been offering their varieties, and in recent years, several big breeding companies from the vegetable industry were announced to be working on strawberry varieties as well, but it was the strawberry breeder Limgroup who launched their first hybrid variety at the International Soft Fruit Conference.
As the soft fruit industry evolves, new challenges arise, but as Ad van Laarhoven with Delphy commented, it's nowhere near a crisis situation. Real crisis in growing strawberries under glass was in the 1980s. Back then, there was very little profit to be earned by growers. Since then, the sector has been on the rise, he noted.
Other challenges, such as the energy crisis are of course always there, but solutions to the "energy problem" are fortunately also plentiful, as was discussed in more detail during a total of fourteen presentations held on Wednesday.
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Everbearers
Another big topic of conversation on the exhibition floor in Den Bosch, filled, with more than seven hundred people on both days, was the advance of everbearers. Certainly not new, but for many growers still a novelty. Breeders are giving them more and more choice with varieties that are suitable for Northwest European greenhouse cultivation. Everbearers, in turn, help meet another challenge, labor. A crop with everbearers promises a flatter labor pattern.
In the field of technology, there is relatively little movement in the Dutch market in terms of new construction. Renovations of existing greenhouses, however, are plentiful. Second or third screens, for example, are still in demand, and so screen installers are still pulling in massive numbers of screen miles from growers. New techniques are also always emerging, such as systems from Widontec and WolkyTolky.
Difficult product
According to Hans Vanderhallen of Coöperatie Hoogstraten, strawberries are perhaps the most difficult fresh produce product to trade. He believes in the future of the auction clock, he said, provided the clock adapts to the times. And that is what is being done in Hoogstraten. More focus has been placed on account management and ties with retailers have also been strengthened. In this way, in the fickle strawberry market, they manage to sell off sudden production peaks as well as possible.
The annual meeting in Den Bosch, followed by the International Soft Fruit Conference on Thursday, and field visits on Friday, remains a great opportunity to share knowledge and take steps together to do even better in terms of cultivation. A plus point in contrast to other editions: the much-desired cold weather in spring for strawberries was present this year. After the exhibition day there was even a chance to skate on natural ice for those who wanted to.