Frozen fruit and vegetables producer Dirafrost announces that the harvesting campaign for strawberries has started almost a month late this year, especially because of weather conditions.
“The strawberry crop in Morocco took a late start this year because of the cold nights during the past weeks. The first fresh strawberries were delivered to our factory for processing last week, which is about 2 to 3 weeks later than the usual start of the harvest,” according to a company statement, which also mentions that the current supply of fresh strawberries per day is 30% of the normal quantity. The main effect of this will be an increase in prices for frozen strawberries, which will be passed on to consumers.
“Right now prices are higher than last year, partly because of very low availability and partly because the fresh strawberry market still continues at interesting prices. The strawberries of the new crop have not yet reached the right level of ripeness to produce whole frozen strawberries. Our factory is currently producing cubes and halves. The first deliveries of whole frozen strawberries of the new crop are expected in our facilities in Belgium in the 1st week of April. The expectations for this season in terms of yield are at the same level of last year. The target is to produce 12.000 tons of frozen strawberries by the end of the season (June),” says Dirafrost.