The Spanish company SAT Alfrut recently celebrated its 25th anniversary at a big party where customers, suppliers, and representatives of institutions and administrations were invited to join in the celebrations together with the partners and growers. The project was first launched in 1999 with great effort and enthusiasm by a group of 5 growers, and today the exporting company is present in all of Europe.
"In the beginning, the five partners who founded Alfrut had a total of 90 hectares where they grew strawberries, citrus fruits, and nectarines, with a turnover of one and a half million euros," says Alfrut manager Manolo Fernández, who has witnessed the company's growth since its creation. "Since then, we have been growing little by little, and today we have 32 growers and 500 hectares devoted to the production of berries and citrus."
"In all these years, we have also produced other fruits, such as stone fruit (nectarines, peaches, or plums) or kakis, but some years ago we decided to focus on the two product lines in which we are specialists," he says.
"Our berries are almost exclusively exported. In fact, more than 95% of the berries we produce go to European markets, with the main destinations being Switzerland and Germany," says Fernández.
"At the moment, all the strawberry fields are planted and, despite the recent heavy storms, there has not been any torrential rain in our area, so we have not suffered any impact. Unfortunately, though, the rains have not helped increase the water levels in Huelva's reservoirs, so there is still some uncertainty about the amount of water that will be available for the season. For now, a 25% decrease in irrigation is expected, and we hope that it will rain in the coming months to prevent further restrictions," he says.
"Nevertheless, and also in spite of the greater difficulties we are having with the crop due to the ban of the active materials we used for soil disinfection, the plants are doing very well and we have already picked the first strawberries from potted plants. For the time being, volumes are very small. Last week, we exported the first kilos, which are very exclusive in the European market, and we saved some of this production to share it with the guests at our 25th-anniversary party," says Fernández.
"In addition to these first strawberries, our raspberry season has also been underway already for 2 months. The market conditions are still hard but, for the time being, prices are more acceptable than in previous years and there's quite a good demand from our main clients, Switzerland, Germany and Austria," he says.
"As far as citrus is concerned, we are focusing on growing mandarins and clementines, which we sell to warehouses and traders at a national level and also to Portugal. This week we have started with the Nova mandarin, which comes after the Clemenrubí, Orogrós and Oronules. The clementine varieties started off well in terms of prices, but ended up hurdled by some difficulties, so we are hoping that this won't happen to the Nova," says Manolo Fernández.
The seasons are currently progressing at a very good pace and with good prospects. "This year, we are again very happy with the work we have been doing at Alfrut. We are now celebrating 25 years of history and we will continue doing what we do best: growing the best berries and the best citrus fruits so that we can continue celebrating many more years at Alfrut," says Fernández.
For more information:
Alfrut, S.A.T. H-0011
Ctra. Huelva-Ayamonte Km. 115
Polígono Industrial Cantargallo. Spain
Tel.: +34 959 384 618
[email protected]
www.alfrut.com