**1. Introduction**

Global strawberry production grew at a rate close to 5% per year in the first two decades of the twenty-first century. At the beginning of this century, 4.57 million tons were produced annually, on an area of 40,000 ha versus 8.9 million tons and 396,401 ha in 2019 [1]. The origin of the production was given as follows: Asia and America are the continents with the highest contribution, where, in decreasing order, China, USA, Mexico, Turkey and Egypt are the five largest producers in the world. The statistics of the last 40 years stand out several factors (1) The cultivation spread from 53 countries in 1980 to 77 in 2000 and 79 in 2019; (2) More than half of the current fruit production is in the subtropical climate; (3) Emerging countries such as: Turkey, Egypt and Morocco, became important production poles; and, (4) The high altitude tropics whose typical case is Mexico, showed its climatic benignity, which placed Mexico as the world's leading producer of fresh strawberries in autumn-winter, a period in which there is a deficit in the global market.

Other factors that are changing the role in the production-demand binomial are the cancelation of methyl-bromide [2], the promotion of organic cultivation, the interest in developing cultivars rich in bioactive and nutraceutical compounds [3], and the increasing importance of day-neutral cultivars [4]. These global trends are changing the profile of the strawberry industry, ultimately creating new technological demands of all kinds, especially for the main component, which are cultivars. In a holistic context, broadening the genetic base for new attributes and the formation of elite cultivars could have a major impact on better use of water, fertilizers, and adaptation to various stresses such as: alkaline pH, excessive heat, tolerance to frost damage, etc., furthermore, to help mitigate and/or eliminate future demand for synthetic pesticides.

Developing elite genotypes will imply a greater exploration, collection, and characterization of wild strawberry germplasm to face global problems [5, 6], a deep scientific knowledge of the genetic complexities to use it, especially in the case of those with ploidy levels other than octoploid. Nevertheless, molecular biology is currently advancing rapidly, and must be an ally of classical improvement, to advance more quickly in the objective of enriching the genetic base of the crop and achieving the development of cultivars with new characteristics. This chapter will present a review of contemporary problems of this crop, the use of current genetic resources as the main strategy to design their management, the factors that affect the under-utilization of the genetic reservoir, the demands for elite cultivars, with genetic resistance to biotic and abiotic factors, and better nutraceutical qualities, and the limitations of this approach.
