Quebec to host the 'Olympics of strawberries'

Quebec City has won a bid to host the "Olympics of strawberries," better known as the world's largest scientific gathering on the sweet fruit.

Horticulturists and researchers from around the world will discuss varieties, pesticides and how to eventually compete with a new player in the market: China.

The country only started producing strawberries in the last decade. Now it is producing around 150,000 hectares of the fruit, three times the quantity produced in California.

One of the ways it's found success is by growing the plants hydroponically.

Yves Desjardins, director of the Horticultural Research Center at Laval University and the man who successfully pitched the Quebec City conference, said growing berries without soil is the future of the industry.

Researchers at Laval are already studying the growth of hydroponic strawberries at one of the university’s greenhouses.

Though it’s an emerging competitor, China isn’t a threat yet to western growers because strawberries simply don’t travel well, Desjardins said.

Quebec is currently the third-largest producer of strawberries in North America, behind Florida and California.

At the International Strawberry Symposium in 2016, local growers will be introduced to new varieties with different tastes, sizes and resistance to pesticides.

Desjardins said it will be exciting for Quebec researchers to show off their work to the rest of the berry world.