Raspberry production and strawberry plantations in Avila make up the organisation’s new concept, “Your Global Berry Partner”.
Additionally, the company will stress its new message “From our Fields to You”, which will allow it to emphasise its position as a producer.
Cuna de Platero’s commitment to being present on the market 52 weeks a year is based on a series of factors. To do this, the company is developing raspberry crops, both for winter and spring-summer, thanks to the variety Adelita. And added to this is a cultivation project of 5 hectares in Avila, a climate zone which will allow strawberries to be harvested between June and October.
“We intend to come full circle with the different lines of berries and to be present with one product or another on the European and Spanish supermarket shelves all year long.”
Pioneers in berries. The commitment to diversification towards other berries is a long-standing idea. The company from Moguer was at the forefront at the end of the last century in raspberry growing, a product that reached a figure of almost 30% of the overall production in Huelva. “However, at the end of 2003, at a time when production was overstepping consumption, we tried, for reasons of profitability to abandon the crop,” Juan Báñez, leader of the cooperative explained.
And 2003 was the point when the organisation took a giant step in the production and marketing of raspberries, “although we have always had had some farmers who kept 30 or 40 hectares of raspberries.”
The volume marketed has reached 46 million kilos of strawberries, 2 of raspberries, 2 of blueberries and 150,000 kilos of blackberries.
The dynamism of the cooperative from Huelva is obvious in its short and medium term plans, where it intends to invest in the enlargement of its installations, as well as increasing its refrigerated space. All of this without ruling out new solutions in formats and packages that will appear for the next campaign.
The company also has its own research department that allows it to develop varieties suitable for this production area and one of its challenges is to obtain blackberry varieties that are more suitable and with greater flavour.
