Well Jim if there was not a market for the"poor quality" irish fruit it would not be grown and would not require a foreign labout force to pick it now, would it?
Personally Iwould believe Dr. Eamonn Kehoe, Teagasc Soft Fruit Specialist: "At present, we produce about 7,000 tonnes of fresh strawberries per year. This is worth an estimated €37m. The Dutch cultivar ‘Elsanta’ is still the most popular cultivar grown. This is followed by a number of other cultivars including ‘Sonata’, ‘Clery’ and ‘Capri’. The cultivar ‘Malling Centenary’ is the most recent cultivar to be tried here. This was bred by the famous East Malling fruit research centre in East Malling, Kent, and named to celebrate 100 years of fruit research at the centre. So far it has proven very popular. This is especially due to its high-quality attributes.

Protected strawberry production is now the mainstay of Ireland’s soft fruit industry. The area of glasshouses built for protected strawberry production has increased substantially since the turn of the new millennium, and the expansion continues every year.
One of the main advantages of protective cropping is that it allows for the supply of fruit outside of the traditional short season of June to July. In fact, today strawberries are now supplied from late March right up until November. Fruit quality is also much higher, which is demanded by today’s consumer. Protective cropping also allows fruit to be harvested in unfavorable weather, giving pickers a much more comfortable environment to work in.
(Farmgate Value)Sector €million
Cattle 2,300
Dairy 1,800
Pigs 467
Horticulture 433
Sheep 256
Cereals 236
Poultry 157