After an early end to the import season from Chile, there was room for greenhouse redcurrants quite early. The harvest from heated greenhouses has now arrived, and picking is shifting to the later Rovada variety. Nijs van Zuilen of Berrybrothers sees a good market for redcurrants, but the company is also looking at other currants. This year, white and blackcurrants were planted.

“Big with a small product,” Nijs classifies the Berrybrothers company. With his twin brother Gerco, he runs the company specialised in the production of Dutch soft fruit. Gerco takes care of production and Nijs is responsible for good harmony between product and customer.

Empty market after import season
Besides the production of raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, focus within Berrybrothers is on the production of redcurrants and the year-round marketing of this product. With more than 70 hectares of redcurrants, Berrybrothers is an important player on the European market. “In recent years, many European market parties have found their way to Roggel, a place in the south of the Netherlands,” Nijs says.

“Looking back on recent months, there has been a lot of demand for redcurrants,” he continues. “After the short Chilean season, the market was empty, and we started picking from heated greenhouses from mid-May.” Mid-February, they started heating the greenhouse. “We expect to pick the final redcurrants from this greenhouse this week,” Nijs says in week 23. “Every year, we start the new redcurrant season with the early Junifer variety, which is characterised by its light colour and fresh flavour. This year, setting went well, so vine length is good. Due to the long-lasting good weather in May, it’s been top-class sport to keep the redcurrants that are fully in production in good condition.”
 

Red, white and black
After the early Junifer variety, which enters the market around early July, picking shifts to the Rovada variety. “This variety is characterised by its excellent length of vines and wonderfully uniform and large berries,” Nijs describes the variety. “Besides these characteristics, the variety is very suited for storage, so that we’re able to offer good-quality redcurrants up to the beginning of April in the following year. Because experience and knowledge is passed down from generation to generation, Berrybrothers is capable of optimally guiding the process from production, harvest and sorting.”

Berrybrothers has chosen to continue specialising in the berry assortment. In 2018, white currants of the Blanca variety and blackcurrants of the Black Pearl variety were therefore planted. “We’ll harvest the first berries of these in 2019. We want to serve our customers with a broad and deep range of soft fruit.”

A number of projects was started in the production of redcurrants in recent years, to respond to changing wishes of consumers. Tests were conducted on special plots to further minimise the average use, and it’s also possible to use top-seal in packaging. “We’re also getting increasing demand to combine products in packaging, the so-called mix, duo or trio packaging.” The brothers are feeling good about the future. “Because we have specialist knowledge of the product and innovations, we’re facing the future with positivity.”

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