Fruit Attraction wrapped up its three-day event in Madrid, Spain, with over 90,000 visitors from 130 countries. Every year, the encounter organized by FEPEX and IEMA chooses a different crop to showcase and promote. 2022’s pick was strawberry.

With a pink carpet and colorful pavilions, the conference brought together several Spanish cooperatives and companies. One of them is Grufresa, a producer and exporter of raspberries and blueberries, but especially strawberries.

Cuna del Platero, another fruit producer located in Huelva, currently owns 100 hectares of raspberries, blackberries, blueberries and strawberries. Juan Bañez, general manager of the cooperative, explains that the industry is in a productive state of maturity, which allows it to have a space at national and international level. 

"It has enormous potential, strawberries can continue to grow and boost consumption," the executive said .

Ongoing campaign 

According to data from FEPEX, Spain has a strawberry planted area of 6,167 hectares. 

Regarding the campaign that will begin in late December, Rafael Domínguez, manager of Freshuelva, says that the sector is in a delicate moment due to rising costs. To fight these issues, they are betting on both the farmer and consumer receiving a fair price.

Along these lines, Juan Báñez projects a positive season. "Although the macroeconomic scenario is complicated, with good work and good quality fruit, we can get ahead".

Juan Manuel Vivas, Managing Director of Frutas de Andalucía, a cooperative society that was born at the end of 2014, aims to reach the same figures from the previous year, i.e. profits of €115 million.

The Spanish strawberry supplies domestic markets, EU markets, the United Kingdom and is presently seeking to reach new destinations. Last year, Freshuelva made its first shipments to Canada and is currently requesting the authorities to reach bilateral agreements that will allow the fruit to enter new countries.

With a world scenario marked by inflation, the war in Ukraine and Russia and the logistics crisis, the industry faces several challenges. Both cooperatives and companies agree that it is key to diversify markets to reach new destinations along with strengthening the quality of the fruit and generating promotional strategies to boost consumption in households.