Senga Sengana and its delicious siblings.

There isn’t just one strawberry.

All the popular types of strawberry in Europe have royal roots. They have been cultivated and sometimes cross-bred at the courts of Louis XIV. Today, there is a wide variety of strawberry cultivars, but 2 distinct categories can be identified:

First of all, there are the Nordic strawberry varieties like Senga Sengana, El Santa and Polka, to name just a few.

• The Senga Sengana berry has a crimson coloring. It is robust in nature, easy to pick, low on acid while high on flavor and ideal for keeping in the freezer.
• El Santa is one of the most popular European strawberries. It has a firm consistency and keeps well and for a long period of time. It has an intensely strawberry flavor, a dense pulp and a brilliant red color all the way through to the white core.
• The Polka strawberry features a very beautiful deep, dark red. It has a subtle flavor, is a high-yield fruit and is also ideal for window-boxes.

The above varieties are grown in Poland, the Ukraine, Serbia and a handful of Chinese regions. They grow best between March and June and are therefore exposed to plenty of sun and warm temperatures, rendering them intensely sweet and soft. These varieties yield an average of 300-500g per plant and should be used quickly. Due to their high fructose content, they are perfect for cooking, making sauces and jams.

The second category consists of the Mediterranean varieties from Morocco, Egypt, Spain and Mexico. They have fittingly exotic monikers like Camarosa, Fortuna and Camino Real.

• The Camarosa is a strawberry from California, and has been around since the early 90s. The berries are large, have a mild flavoring and are easily transportable.
• Fortunas are firm but succulent berries with red pulp and a very smooth skin. The fruit, often weighing in at around 22g, is relatively easy to pick thanks to its long stems.
• The Camino Real keeps very well for a long time, is extremely pest-resistant and produces a succulent and sweetly flavored fruit.These varieties grow best between November and February and are exposed to less aggressive temperatures. The fruit is bigger, more robust and yields around 1,2 kg per plant.

Mediterranean strawberries are ideal for long-distance transport and are often used in the industrial production of dairy and baked goods as well as ice cream.

New types of strawberry are continuously developed in order to optimize shape, texture and flavor. An average research cycle can be anywhere between 7 and 10 years. This would be considered an unacceptable waiting period for the often much-anticipated release of a new strawberry variety to a designated geographical region.

AGRANA Fruit is very engaged in agricultural science, methods of cultivation and the uses of many different varieties of fruit. Our global network of procurement experts and fields covering more than 1000 hectares of land give us a significant competitive advantage in fruit know-how and the application of the perfect fruit and its ideal use and geographical region.