The season may be almost over, but this year’s strawberry crop may reach a new record as fewer companies grow more of the summer fruit.

The number of people engaged in picking strawberries in the Netherlands has nearly halved in the decade running to 2017, while the area available for growing strawberries decreased by 5% in the same period, according to provisional figures published by the national statistics office CBS on Friday.

Growers are switching from the open ground to growing in greenhouses and inflatable tunnels, requiring fewer pickers, the CBS figures show.

At present 76% of the annual strawberry crop is grown in the ground, compared to 85% in 2006. At the same time, the number of companies engaged in growing strawberries, has almost halved since 2006 to 450.

Strawberry production in 2016 was 57.5 mllion kilos, 47% more than the 39.2 million kilos registered in 2006. The CBS said the Netherlands is  ranked 7th worldwide in terms of production and 11th in terms of size of the strawberry growing area.