Bumper strawberry crop leaves producers scrambling to prevent waste

It's been a great year forQuebec's strawberry producers, but the abundance of strawberries in a short period of time has left them scrambling to find a way to use or sell the fruit.

Therecord-high temperatures this summer have resulted in a higher-than-average yield of strawberries.

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"We have at least a good percentage above what we had last year and they are a lot earlier than they were last year," Marc-AndrIsabelle, theowner ofLa Belle deCoteau-du-Lacstrawberry farm, said in an interview with CBC Montreal's Homerun.

There's plenty of produce hitting the market, which hascaused problems for producers.

"Strawberries are a fairly perishable product," saidIsabelle.

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"We can't store it, so it has to be directly marketed through grocery stores and kiosks or other retail places."

Theassociation that represents strawberry and raspberry producers in the province has met with grocery stores to try and coordinate when and how much strawberries should be sold in order to prevent waste.

Isabelle says Quebecers should be getting a good deal on the fruit throughout August.