Canada: Quebec to Host "Strawberry Olympics"

April 11, 2012

Quebec City has won a bid to host what is being billed as the "Olympics of Strawberries in 2016." Growers and researchers from all around the world will convene to discuss such things as varieties, pesticides and how to compete with an emerging player - China.
    
China only started growing strawberries over the last 10 years, but now produces on 150,000 ha, three times the amount of cultivation in California.

Yves Desjardins, director of the Horticultural Research Center at Laval University and the man who successfully pitched the Quebec City conference, said that, despite China's growth in the industry, there is no threat yet to western cultivation as the fruit does not travel well.

Quebec is currently the third-largest producer of strawberries in North America, behind Florida and California.

At the International Strawberry Symposium in 2016, local growers will be introduced to new varieties with different tastes, sizes and resistance to pesticides.

Desjardins said it will be exciting for Quebec researchers to show off their work to the rest of the berry world.

- Source: www.cbc.ca

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