Strawberry Production in Huelva Increases in Year-on-Year Terms

Strawberry numbers are looking up in Spain! As the 2018-2019 strawberry campaign draws to a close in Huelva, production increased by 2% compared with the previous campaign, yielding more than 340,000 tons of strawberries. Sales amounted to 554 million euros, reflecting solid growth of 7% year-on-year.

The campaign concluded earlier than expected, in late May, due to positive weather conditions. Producers faced some challenges, such as a delay in the start of the season due to rain and the need to replant more of two varieties in particular, Rociera and Primoris. This, in turn, led to a decline in the amount of strawberries sold in December and January. More strawberries were available in February, March and April, and 35.5% of total production was marketed in March, according to freshplaza.com. Exports of strawberries from Andalusia totaled around 240,000 tons between December 2018 and June 2019, notably 7.75% higher than in comparative terms. Moreover, there was an increase in value as well, of 2.2%, compared with the previous year. It’s also worth noting that the unit value of exported strawberries was the highest obtained for the last seven campaigns.