2019 ASHS Annual Conference

Strawberry growers face production challenges given the incidence of diseases affecting their crops and consumers’ increasing concerns about pesticide use in fresh fruits and the phase out of methyl bromide. Meanwhile breeders face a difficult challenge in combining production and consumer-oriented traits in a single new cultivar. Using economic experiments, we investigate how strawberry growers value disease resistance versus fruit quality. Our results indicate that depending on the fruit quality and disease resistance attribute considered, small and large growers might have similar or different preferences. Both small and large growers have strong preferences for the attributes flavor improvement and disease resistance from root and crown rot attributes. The findings from this study provide important information to breeders on identifying priority attributes for new cultivars for different types of strawberry growers. Such new cultivars will improve the competitiveness of the Florida strawberry industry in an increasingly competitive and marketplace.