The strawberry history of Plant City, FL, began over a hundred years ago when the first railroad was extended to the western coast of the state.

Since that time it has evolved into one of the world's larger and more advanced producing areas.

The Florida Strawberry Growers Association, headquartered in Dover, was formed in 1982 as a way for growers to become "partners in research, promotion and member-community service."

Today, 16 million flats of strawberries are produced annually in the state. The association has also evolved tremendously over the years.

"We actually function as three individual organizations today," said Executive Director Chip Hinton. "We hold all the licenses and agreements on Florida strawberry varieties, which is operated as one division. The Florida Strawberry Patent Service Corp. is another. These are both non-profit organizations. The third is the Florida Strawberry Research & Education Foundation. This arm oversees all of our research, youth work and scholarship functions. Since July 1, 2005, we are also overseeing the operations of the Gulf Coast Research & Education Center, also in Dover."

Mr. Hinton said that the association's strategy in past years included research, development, marketing, grower issues and community relations. It has now removed the research and education portions of these functions and transferred them to the foundation's division. This has enabled the group to initiate some interesting projects that it was not able to in the past.

"The research facility happens to be just south of Interstate 4, between Tampa and Orlando," said Mr. Hinton. "The locale provides us with wonderful tourism opportunities. We are sandwiched between Disney World and the many other Orlando attractions, and Bush Gardens and the west coast's beautiful beaches and other tourism draws. Our plan is to turn the facility into a strawberry tourism center that includes displays on technological advancements, farming aspects and entertainment venues."

Strawberry growers in the area, researchers, board members, directors and others involved in the Florida strawberry industry feel that the over-100-year history of the business and how it has changed during those years would be of strong interest to visitors. For example, displays will depict how the school year was reversed in the area some 10 decades ago. In that agrarian society, children attended classes in the summer so that they could help grow and harvest the berry crop in the winter.

It will also offer strawberry plots for people to pick berries, it will offer souvenirs and it will demonstrate the high technology the industry uses today, with an emphases on how the industry protects the environment by using natural resources properly and conscientiously.

Planning the strawberry attraction required putting some loose ends into place, however. "The facility is located on a rural road with residential homes," said Mr. Hinton. "It didn't make sense to have tourists drive down this road to reach us, so we purchased another acre of land adjacent to the interstate to give us direct access."

He continued, "We are now in the process of preparing our business analysis because the attraction must also make sense financially. Our plan is to put aspects of the facility into place in stages over the next few years. This year we will organize tours with printed literature in an effort to begin exposing people to the area and facility. We already have barbecue pits, picnic tables and facilities for those in the trade to enjoy time here, so we just have to expand our visitor bank."

In 2007, the association plans to install some outdoor displays of old machinery used in strawberry production.

Other aspects will be added each year in the future. Mr. Hinton said that the association hopes to get legislative support to use as leverage in obtaining state and local funding to help develop the attraction.

Overall, there is a lot of excitement over what is beginning to look like a very viable tourist attraction for Florida's strawberry industry in the future.

(For more on Florida strawberries, see the Feb. 20 issue of The Produce News.)