Julio Volante: "The producer of Huelva should think about the blueberry varietal calendar before planting"
The blueberry is one of the red fruits on the rise among farmers in the province of Huelva. It is one of the productions for which Huelva producers have opted to diversify strawberry cultivation, which was monoculture until the end of the 90 decade in the last century. From there, raspberry, blackberry and blueberry have gained importance.
Given this novelty and to face the “multiple problems that were coming our way”, at a technical level, the Huelva Delegation of the Official College of Agricultural Technical Engineers of Western Andalusia, Coitand, decided to organize a monothematic conference dedicated to the cultivation of blueberries , as a forum to debate and seek solutions to the different aspects raised by the collegiate members who daily have to supervise and make this crop profitable. This year is its third edition, it will be the III Technical Conference of Cranberry Cultivation in the province of Huelva.
The president of the Coitand in Huelva, Julio Volante, explains in an interview for agrodiariohuelva.es The main objective of the day is to be useful to technicians and meet their demands. From there, the objectives that arise with the presentations is to tackle problems and "Avoid the mistakes that have been made in other crops such as strawberries."
Going into matter, in his opinion, the introduction of new materials should have been approached from a more technical approach and with a view to having a market; as an example it indicates that "There are plant materials that are not in the right place; for the cranberry any soil is not worth, it requires sandy and acidic zones; the second, it can be controlled, but it is not recommended ". Add that “The varietal calendar of blueberries has not been taken into account either, which can lead to problems later on; the farmer should have weighed in on it in advance ", he emphasizes.
It draws attention to a fundamental issue, which is plant health; until now "We have found that the tools to act are rather scarce". On this issue, he appeals to the Junta de Andalucía to "Support the producer and do not distance yourself from this emerging sector" and the farmer to be flexible when considering the possibility of studying plantations to tackle problems. "For this we have a great collaborator that is the University of Huelva, from where you can make very interesting and profitable studies in the long run", Señala.
The blueberry has introduced an important change in the agricultural field in Huelva, taking into account that the farmer who is dedicated to it, is the one who has usually cultivated strawberries. "Cranberry is a stable crop, which means that it will have a permanence in time, this has pros and cons; Among the most significant contras is the fact that being a more permanent crop the problems that appear a year will be dragged in time, from one campaign to another and worsen over the years ".
The predominant blueberry variety in the province of Huelva is the star, a free material with good qualities, that is, "It is productive and of quality". But Volante warns that the problem is that it concentrates production in a very specific period of the year from March to June. "It adapts to the needs of the red fruit producer because it begins when the strawberry season is ending; but many kilos of production in the market jeopardizes its profitability as prices fall ".
The sector tries to regulate the production of cranberry growing in different regions of the coast such as Andévalo and Sierra
The advantage in Huelva is that "There is a certain facility to agree on many issues, which is undoubtedly a great asset in our favor; go hand in hand because it will go much better to everyone ", indicates the person in charge of Coitand in Huelva. And he adds that one of the successes of the sector has been to try to play with the geographical situation of the crop so that production areas have arisen in different regions, such as the Andévalo or the Sierra, in addition to the traditionally agricultural such as the Costa and the County.
You can also stagger the production with infrastructures such as tunneling or outdoors and controlling precocity, says Volante.
Marketing: the snack
The profitability of cranberry production, like that of any fruit, is in the commercialization. Julio Volante points out that Spain is a potential market, "We have no habit in the consumption of this fruit so we must work in this line". One of the outputs and that have served in other countries is in the sale in the form of snack or snack, "So you can have a lot of pull. Also from the point of view of gastronomy and healthy is one of the most complete fruits that exist in the market ".
In any case, the balance between supply and demand "It has to be balanced, what we can not do is repeat what happened with the raspberry at the end of the 90 when production hectares were doubled from one year to the next and prices fell by 50%".
Julio Volante recalls that the 2.000 hectares of cranberry production that exist in the province of Huelva are not at full capacity and, "The surface of crop continues growing, what indicates that the production will multiply in the short and half term", he emphasizes.
The blueberry in Huelva
In this campaign the area of blueberry has become 2.538 hectares compared to the 1.953 of the previous one, which translates into an increase of 30%, the largest experienced among all berries, as the area of blackberries grows 23%: from 130 to 160 hectares. Of raspberry there are 1.932 hectares for the 1.815 that there was last year, what supposes an increase of the 6,45%.
It will be the first time that the blueberry is the second berry on the surface planted in the province of Huelva, although it must be taken into account that it is a shrub that starts its commercial production from the third year, which means that all the plants come into production this season.
Working day
The III Technical Conference on Blueberry Cultivation in the province of Huelva will be held on April 5 at the University of La Rábida. It has been distributed in several thematic blocks that, broadly speaking, address plant health, healthy and nutritional qualities due to the consumption of the fruit and the example of large producing countries with Argentina as the guest country on this occasion.
Julio Volante assures that the program of the day is elaborated thinking about the collegiate and technicians who daily work with this crop. That is why it highlights the technical sections of the program, such as lectures on diseases and tools that exist in the market and that "There are not many", underlines the president of Coitand in Huelva.
In the section on plant health Elisa Domínguez Garzón, head of the Department of Plant Health, will talk about the 'Xilella fastidiosa' disease that has been detected in Mallorca and that is a real threat to many of the plant species of the Iberian Peninsula, including that of the blueberry. 'The possible pathological threats of the blueberry' will be addressed by Pablo Alvarado and Salud Orta, both from the Plant Health Laboratory, the first within the Entomatology Department and the second from the Pathology Department.
This section related to plant health will continue in the afternoon session with a round table on mycorrhizae in which Francisco García Luna, Alberto Bago and Khalid Akdi will take part, as well as a presentation on phytosanitary applications by Roberto Grau from Pulverizers Fede .
The morning session will be completed with the intervention of the Argentine Pablo Rubio who will speak about the evolution of the crop in Argentina and two conferences on the nutritional properties of the blueberry. The first by the doctor Antonio Ladredo who will talk about the cardiovascular benefits of blueberry and the second by the nutritionist Antonio Escribano who will address the nutritional benefits of the fruit and its application in the sports world.
Source: Agrodiariohuelva.es
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