Fresh may be best, but when it comes to strawberries, harvest time brings considerable challenges for growers. In BC, the strawberry harvest lasts for only four weeks, giving growers a very small window of time to move millions of pounds of berries. By the time the consumer is aware of their availability, the season is almost over, leaving producers who don’t pre-arrange sales with the potential for a spoilt berry surplus and financial losses. For the Fraser Valley Strawberry Growers Association, keeping producers and consumers connected during the critical harvest time was a job for social media.
With the support of the federal-provincial Safety Net Program, the Association got together with local growers to demonstrate various social media applications. Through tools such as Twitter, Facebook and blogs, producers are now able to access an enormous consumer base and provide continual updates about the strawberry harvest on their farms.
Now the only problem that an abundance of fresh strawberries presents is what recipe to try!
Funding: $7,750 allocated through the former federal-provincial Safety Nets framework. (SP170)
