Record 78 million kilos of strawberries grown in NL last year

Dutch strawberries were in high demand last year. A record 78 million kilograms of strawberries were grown in the Netherlands in 2020, almost double the production of 2010. And strikingly, exports of Dutch strawberries hardly increased in the past years, NOS reports.

"That means that we mainly eat the extra strawberries ourselves," Wilco van den Berg, market specialist at trade association GroentenFruit Huis, said to the broadcaster. "In the past three years alone, consumption in the Netherlands has increased by a third to 45 million kilos."

Thanks to the increasing use of greenhouses and plastic tunnels, strawberry season is stretching longer and longer. Strawberries used to be in supermarkets mainly in the months of June, July and August. Now they can be bought as early as April and May, and well into the autumn. 

As things stand now, 2021 will not be another record year for strawberries. "That's because of the spring, which was cold and dark for a long time. You can't take back those weeks that you miss in the open ground at the beginning of strawberry season. Nature doesn't work that way," Van den Berg said.