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Strawberry harvesters at Raf Quirijnen’s hydroponic farm work standing up. Just as the Champagne region of France is synonymous with sparkling wine, the Hoogstraten region of northern Belgium is renowned for its strawberries. Quirijnen is one of 180 local farmers that supply the Hoogstraten Cooperative, where strawberries have been auctioned since 1933. Today they produce 66 million pounds of the ruby red fruit each year in hydroponic greenhouses in the winter and in the soil each summer. As labor and production costs are high in Belgium, growers focus on producing the highest-quality fruit as sustainably as possible, with solar panels, solar water heaters, rainwater collectors, and cardboard boxes instead of plastic ones labeled with QR codes so you can see exactly where your strawberries were grown.

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Strawberry harvesters at Raf Quirijnen’s hydroponic farm work standing up. Just as the Champagne region of France is synonymous with sparkling wine, the Hoogstraten region of northern Belgium is renowned for its strawberries. Quirijnen is one of 180 local farmers that supply the Hoogstraten Cooperative, where strawberries have been auctioned since 1933. Today they produce 66 million pounds of the ruby red fruit each year in hydroponic greenhouses in the winter and in the soil each summer. As labor and production costs are high in Belgium, growers focus on producing the highest-quality fruit as sustainably as possible, with solar panels, solar water heaters, rainwater collectors, and cardboard boxes instead of plastic ones labeled with QR codes so you can see exactly where your strawberries were grown.

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