All strawberry growers could use stone wool with guidance

Added on 17 July 2023

As a specialist in soft fruits, can you tell us more about the strawberry sector? What are the main challenges facing growers, and how is the market changing?

Firstly, although prices have dropped slightly since the extreme peaks of recent months, the high cost of energy continues to put pressure on strawberry growers because strawberries are an energy-intensive crop. Secondly, strawberries are a very labour-intensive crop in terms of propagating, planting, crop maintenance, harvesting and clearing out the greenhouse at the end of the cycle. Labour is scarce and therefore also costly, and although some activities can be automated or robotized and various advancements have been made, it is still early but there are already developments for strawberries and several of them have been tested in Delphy ISFC. The third pressing issue is water, because clean starting water is essential in strawberries, but good-quality water is becoming increasingly scarce. Besides that, it’s becoming more and more necessary for growers to recycle a large percentage – if not all – of their drain water due to legislative requirements, not to mention for cost reasons as fertilizer prices continue to rise. As a result, it is becoming increasingly interesting to cultivate strawberries in high-tech greenhouses, because it is much easier to precisely manage inputs such as energy and water in a controlled environment. Indoor cultivation has the added advantage of extending the crop cycle, so that growers can produce strawberries in the winter too to take advantage of market demand.