If you’ve been to the grocery store lately you may have noticed that Quebec strawberries are often more expensive than ones imported from the United States and other foreign countries.
At the Esposito grocery store in Montreal’s NDG neighbourhood on Tuesday, strawberries from California were being sold for $3.99, and FraiseBec strawberries grown right here in Quebec were being sold for $6.99.
“Of course it bothers us,” said Jasmine Sauvé, director general of the Strawberry and Raspberry Growers Association of Quebec.
Our sunny spring has caused Quebec berries to be ready two weeks earlier than usual, but according to Sauvé, the early harvest has coincided with the production peak in California.
She says foreign producers have so many strawberries that they’re dumping them here, in some cases even selling them at a loss.
“It’s not easy for us to have those kinds of prices at the beginning of the season,” said Pier-Luc Deschamps, operations director at FraiseBec, a producer about 60 km north of Montreal in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines. “It’s way below our production costs right now.”
He is thrilled with the prosperous early harvest, but also knows with cheap foreign product flooding the shelves right now, his berries are operating at a disadvantage.
“What they’re doing is they’re dumping their overproduction on our market and selling those strawberries beside our Quebec strawberries. It’s very hard,” said Sauvé.
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Quebec producers like FraiseBec can’t drop their prices to compete, because they say strawberries are more expensive to produce here.
“We have a minimum wage that is higher, we have labour laws, we have environmental standards. Even the container cost is higher here, so all this comes at a cost,” said Sauvé.
Deschamps sells to dozens of grocery stores in the Montreal area. He says much of the time the berries you grab were picked from his local farm that same day.
“The quality is very good. It’s really impressive,” he said. “We need customers to know that these are in the market right now.”
He says they are far superior compared to the Californian or Mexican products that may have travelled thousands of kilometres to arrive in your shopping cart.
Deschamps says producers have been working with stores to address the price discrepancy. As more Quebec strawberries become available, prices will drop in the next few weeks .
“With the nice weather that we have, it’s incredible the quality and the quantity of fruits that are going to be in the markets,” he said.
Producers are hoping the favourable conditions continue, as the success of Quebec’s strawberry season depends largely on the weather. Last year, strong storms and colder temperatures hurt yields. This year they’re hoping for the perfect mix of sunny skies and light rain.
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