Carlos Quintana, producer of the Estanzuela de Itauguá company, reported that there are currently about 350 hectares of strawberry trees in the area. The plantations extend to properties located in the vicinity of the Areguá-San Bernardino route, where the Estanzuela company is located, in the capital-interior sense, before the Patiño company.
The microclimate of Lake Ypacaraí that surrounds the community favors excellent production, Quintana said.
The producer affirmed that this year the market will be crowded with delicious fruit, between August and September, which will cause the price to gradually drop due to overproduction. The desire is that the weather conditions are maintained in order to increase performance, he stressed.
He pointed out that apart from the beneficial climate, the good production was due to cultural care, such as fertilization, irrigation, weed control and the appearance of pests. The most common, known to producers as ñandu’i, this year fortunately did not appear.
Quintana said that later comes the collection, which has its expenses in terms of personnel occupation.
“All the necessary human resources are available to remove the old leaves, stolons, baskets, and finally the sale,” he explained.
He indicated that years ago the strawberry was only produced in Central and through the promotion carried out by the press it was extended to practically all the departments of our country.
Quintana celebrated that many industries are giving strawberries added value, manufacturing jams, ice cream and other derivatives. He added that out of time producers have frozen strawberries for processors.
