Fruit growers in Drenthe are delighted. The circumstances in which their soft fruit could grow in recent months were almost perfect. The result: a product to be proud of.
Albert and Sjoukje Boersen immediately fell into the butter with their nose. This year they were at the helm of organic blueberry company on the right track in Tiendeveen. The hope was that they could kick off with an above average season. “And that certainly happened,” says fruit grower Albert Boersen.
The weather conditions for soft fruit such as blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and blackberries could hardly be better. Where in 2024 growers had to do with a cold spring and too much rain, there were many beautiful days this year.
It was not too hot all summer, not too cold, not too wet and not too dry. And there was enough sunlight. If it did not rain in Drenthe for a period, growers could solve it by frequently wet the fruit with drops. That is called drop irrigation.
The result is a larger berry, so growers can lose more kilos. “And they get nice and crispy, not too soft,” says Boersen. “I want to be proud of my product. And that was certainly successful this year.”
What has also helped is the absence of night frost and strong hail showers during the growing season, knows fellow grower Peter Smid from Marwijksoord from Fruitbedrijf De Marwijkshof. “Because hail you see in the berry,” he says. “Moreover, the fruit deteriorates hard at tropical temperatures of 30 degrees or more, but there were not many those days either. The fruit has endured those few hot days.”
Smid has berries, blackberries and raspberries. He also does an apple collection every year and he cultivates apples himself. “As one of the few in Drenthe,” he says. For hard fruit such as apples and pears, it was just as well an excellent growing season, confirms the Dutch Fruittelers organization. But because the land in Drenthe is too acidic, the province is not suitable for growing apples and pears on a large scale.
Yet it is not just Hosanna with the fruit growers. In Tiendeveen, for example, Albert Boersen suffered from the Suzuki fruit fly, which caused the necessary damage. “This fly can poke through the skin of a blueberry,” says Boersen. “Then he lays a breeze in the berry, which is affected by this. And this fly can reproduce fairly quickly. As a result, the season for hand picking was quickly ended.” Sap can still be made of berries affected by the fruit fly.
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