2019 journal article

The Status and Future of the Strawberry Industry in the United States

HORTTECHNOLOGY, 29(1), 11–24.

By: J. Samtani *, C. Rom*, H. Friedrich*, S. Fennimore, C. Finn*, A. Petran*, R. Wallace*, M. Pritts* ...

co-author countries: United States of America πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡Έ
author keywords: annual hill production; market; conventional; organic; perennial matted row
Source: Web Of Science
Added: March 25, 2019

Strawberry ( Fragaria Γ— ananassa ) production practices followed by growers in the United States vary by region. Understanding the challenges, needs, and opportunities in each region is essential to guide research, policy, and marketing strategies for the strawberry industry across the country, and to enable the development of general and region-specific educational and production tools. This review divided the United States into eight distinct geographic regions and an indoor controlled or protected environment production system. Current production systems, markets, cultivars, trends, and future directions for each region are discussed. A common trend across all regions is the increasing use of protected culture strawberry production with both day-neutral and short-day cultivars for season extension to meet consumer demand for year-round availability. All regions experience challenges with pests and obtaining adequate harvest labor. Increasing consumer demand for berries, climate change-induced weather variability, high pesticide use, labor and immigration policies, and land availability impact regional production, thus facilitating the adoption of new technologies such as robotics and network communications to assist with strawberry harvesting in open-field production and production under controlled-environment agriculture and protected culture.