Frambuesas/Raspberries
http://cathedral-lonavala.org/affi_ban/ Lake Chapala
We looked across Lake Chapala and saw white patches standing out against the green of the surrounding hillsides. Arranged in geometric patterns, they lay at odd angles to each other.
What is this we’re seeing?
Curious, we asked that question to people walking along Chapala’s malecón, the lakeside promenade lined with food and souvenir vendors. Everyone we asked gave us a polite answer. However, all the answers were different. The replies that seemed most probable revolved around some agricultural practice.
So, the next day we hired a driver and traveled east and around the lake to its south side for a first-hand inspection.
What a surprise. The white splotches were tents, and under these tents grew raspberries, the edible fruit of the plant species in the genus Rubus of the rose family. Raspberries are perennial with woody stems or canes.
All of the local contract growers where we stopped and asked for information told us Driscoll’s, a Watsonville, California based seller of fresh berries, provided them technical expertise and purchased their berries.
Googling Driscoll’s we found that company controlled roughly one-third of the $6 billion U.S. berry market. Driscoll’s began growing berries, but today they focus on marketing, research and development, and operate worldwide. Driscoll’s works with its growers on the development and adoption of growing systems, which allows for extremely precise irrigation and nutrient delivery and result in reductions of 30 percent or more water per acre. Their systems make harvesting easier for workers by placing fruit at eye level, reducing bending or kneeling.
Driscoll’s adopted global Worker Welfare standards for their independent growers and posters describing them are prominently displayed in the packing sheds of their cooperating farms. The company is publicly committed to farm-worker improvements and utilizes third-party audits and assessments to ensure compliance. Also, Driscoll’s has instituted a pilot program with Fair Trade USA to bring to market Fair Trade Certified organic strawberries and organic raspberries.
In a 9 August, 2018 article in FreshPlaza, an industry website and news mail, Jalisco Secretary of Rural Development, Hector Padilla Gutierrez, states:
The berry sector triggered investment and employment in the fields of Jalisco.
The state leads the blueberry market with 13,354 tons and the raspberry market with 85,960 tons.
“The cultivation of berries has represented an important change; it has helped generate wealth and mass employment.”
Thanks to crop conversion, he said, the berry sector surpassed tequila exports.
Last year, national exports of Mexican berries amounted to 1.940 billion dollars. The fruit was destined to the United States, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Japan, Italy, Canada, Belgium, Hong Kong, Russia, and Saudi Arabia, among other places.
Jalisco is Mexico’s leader in the production of raspberries and blueberries; second of blackberry and fourth place of strawberry.
The availability of berries in Jalisco already has made its influence felt in the regional cuisine and drinks. We enjoyed aguas frescas de frambuesa/ fresh raspberry drinks and mermelada de franbuesa/raspberry jam in local restaurants.
