The National Association of Plant Breeders (Anove) stated that Huelva is the epicenter of Spain's blueberry cultivation, accounting for 97% of national production and concentrating 82% of the area cultivated in Andalusia.
Within the framework of the sixth Blueberry Cultivation Technical Workshop organized by the College of Agricultural Technical Engineers of Western Andalusia and held in La Rabida (Palos de la Frontera), Lluis Inglada, the head of the Cerdà Institute's Territory Area, presented the details of the recent study prepared by the institution.
"The study states that blueberry is one of the fastest growing species in the world and stresses that Spain would have been unable to grow blueberries without the contribution of plant improvement. In fact, one hundred percent of the product obtained and the income generated between 1995 and 2018 is thanks to plant improvement," Inglada stated.
Elena Saenz, the director of Anove, said that these improvements had allowed farmers to grow blueberry crops in latitudes and soils where they couldn't have been grown a few decades ago. "To a large extent, this has been possible thanks to the selection of new varieties adapted to almost all types of climates and new cultivation techniques," she added.
"In this sense, the introduction of new varieties has contributed 10,812 tons of blueberry a year in these years," Lluis Inglada stated. In Spain, the total area under blueberry cultivation increased sixfold between 2012 and 2018. In fact, Spain already leads production in Europe, with more than 43,000 tons, accounting for 41% of all of the Community's blueberry production.
Blueberry is currently one of the crops with the highest growth prospects in the near future. Various market studies indicate that, in Europe and Spain, the consumption of blueberries will increase fourfold, from the current 0.180 kilos to almost one kilogram per person per year.
Source: huelvainformacion.es