BFV growers supply soft fruit from different cultivation systems
“We can, thus, extend the season well beyond the picking period.” The cooperative sees more opportunities in spreading the risk, by flattening the market peaks, than in greenhouse cultivation. “With the product spread well over several months, grower prices are guaranteed.” That is possible. You can sell some soft fruit at auction and some through a pool system. “That works very well; because we have fixed price agreements that provide growers with a measure of certainty. Those agreements let us sharply lower the peak period, so there’s no pressure on auction prices.” ENERGY COSTS Another reason for not growing soft fruit under glass, says Diether, is the rising
energy costs. “Heating costs skyrocketed last year, which will become even more problematic. During strawberries’ autumn greenhouse cultivation - from September to December 2021 - not everyone heated as much as they should.” He says other cooperatives noticed this, too, as it affected the strawberries’ quality and colour. “As a result, their storage and shelf life are also much reduced, which causes problems. If you do not heat greenhouses regularly, the fruits colour less well and lose quality.”
the 500 tons of greenhouse strawberries the cooperative sells, the focus is on the early season and later, from September to December. “You can build a greenhouse for that, unlike for other soft fruits with their sales peaks. You can market greenhouse strawberries until the start of the tunnel season, which makes that product an interesting one. And you rarely have an oversupply.” BFV’s number of greenhouses also contributes to a moderate supply, concludes Diether diether.everaerts@bfv.be
Incidentally, strawberries are the only small fruit BFV’s members grow under glass. Since these red fruits’ sales are more spread out, it is more feasible to invest in greenhouse cultivation. Diether says, with
BelOrta: “More and more soft fruit is being grown under shelter” “We want to be in the picture with consumers as quickly and long as possible,” says Miguel Demaeght, Fruit Sales Manager Fruit at BelOrta, referring to soft fruit greenhouse cultivation. He sees similarities with strawberries for raspberries, blackberries, redcurrants, and gooseberries. “Thanks to greenhouse cultivation, we can open the Belgian strawberry season on March 9, and the other cultivation systems seamlessly connect to that. This role is reserved for greenhouse cultivation for all other types of soft fruit too. And we’ll be closing the season with greenhouse-grown strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries.” Miguel notes that generally, covered - not specifically under glass - soft fruit cultivation is on the rise. “Some kind of crop protection provides harvest certainty and guarantees an income.″ Soft fruit cultivation has been
professionalizing over the past 20 years; market simultaneously. That also partsometimes growing from a side business ly determines market opportunities and into a full time, professional one. “Our the feasibility of certain growing systems. growers are no longer willing to risk Overseas suppliers are doing their best to fully exposing their products to Mother extend their presence more and more.” Nature’s fickleness.” Nowadays, almost all soft fruit marketed via BelOrta has a ‘roof’ “Fortunately, we successfully persuaded over its head. “That ‘roof’ can be glass, ful- quite a few Belgian customers to switch ly sealed plastic, or rain canopies. In addi- to local soft fruits as quickly as possible. tion to blueberries, we have a small area of open field redcurrant and gooseberry plants. We’re seeing more and more of that protection, especially with redcurrants, raspberries, and blackberries.”
MARKET CONDITIONS That ‘roof’ for those soft fruits often not being glass, is something Miguel attributes to the quite narrow market conditions. “There’s a certain demand for greenhouse-grown soft fruit. Overseas suppliers and Belgian greenhouse-grown soft fruit are very often present on the
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