French strawberries resist competition thanks to soilless cultivation

As soon as you enter the greenhouse, an intense scent hits the visitor’s nose: the strawberry season is in full swing in the Rhône valley, like everywhere in France, where the small fruit resists competition.

On Franck Figuet’s farm, dozens of pickers, delivery men and the boss are engaged in a race to deliver perfectly ripened strawberries every day, a sine qua non condition for winning the battle of taste.

Varieties dream, magnum, kara… the plants run over more than 100 km of linear lines, planted in bags of substrate 1.20 m from the ground, a less arduous system which helps to find labor and also to gain in productivity, explains the farmer, established in a vast region market gardener from northern Isère.

With 50 to 60,000 tonnes per year, French production, almost exclusively consumed in France, covers more than half of the needs – a performance when overall 60% of the fruit is imported.

While national demand for strawberries grew in the 2000s, France was even able to reduce its imports by 44% in 20 years, according to FranceAgriMer.

Because the sector, which came close to disaster with Spain’s entry into the Common Market, was forced to reorganize. First effect: the rise of above-ground cultivation under cover, which today accounts for a large part of the volumes.

“Above-ground has saved the sector,” assures Franck Figuet, also vice-president of the Association of Strawberry and Raspberry Producer Organizations: “in the ground, you put 30-35,000 plants per hectare, here 80 to 100,000” without the need for space for machines. “In the open ground, you pick up 10 kilos per hour, above ground 20 to 25” adds Mr. Figuet.

Félix Pizon, from the Lot-et-Garonne Fruit and Vegetable Association, sees an interest in it both for “working comfort and plant management”.

“When we know the problems of recruiting labor in an agricultural environment, it is very important. And when the work is more comfortable, the harvesters pay more attention to the product: the strawberry picked from the ground, you keep it in your hand longer, whereas when ripe it is very sensitive.”

However, no organic label is possible, reserved for crops grown in the ground.

The proponents of above-ground want to ensure their environmental commitment. Franck Figuet keeps the grass on the ground to maintain humidity, favors the treatment of the thrips pest with predatory insects, and “only treats” possible mushrooms. The crushed coconut fiber, coming from Sri Lanka to replace the earth, is enriched with organic fertilizers, watered with a remotely controlled drip irrigation system.

– “On the job” –

In any case, everyone agrees on one point: priority to “taste” varieties, starting with gariguette, which appeared in 1976.

“We French people want to stand out with taste varieties. If it’s to make ‘beets’, it’s useless,” says Mr. Figuet, a supporter of the short circuit which allows the harvest to be ripe.

“On the strawberry, the migration of the sugar takes place at the last moment. When we pick it when ripe, it is much sweeter, much better. When the Spaniards pick a strawberry that is not quite ripe, because they have transport constraints, the migration of the sugar has not yet taken place.”

At the nearby Grand Frais store, consumers are not mistaken, but the price remains a barrier.

“It’s certain that those from France are better, but the price is also better,” says Kader Habri, 62, perplexed “while they come from next door.”

Franck Figuet describes an increase in the cost of plants, substrates from India or Sri Lanka, transport… “Strawberries remain profitable but our costs are increasing”.

While France’s loss of “food sovereignty” fuels the political debate, could the country produce more?

Probably not, replies the farmer, for whom the sector is already “on the job”. And then “young people no longer have the desire: above ground is also constraint, a human presence 7 days a week”.

The sixty-year-old, however, sees hope in the development of more productive varieties, he says. But “always tasteful”.