“Growth is still a hot topic in the blueberry market”

Overview of blueberries from Poland and China, complemented by charts from Agronometrics. Original published on November 7, 2024.

Whereas 12,951 tonnes of fresh blueberries were exported from Peru in season 2015-2016, that figure was 224,889 tonnes in season 2023-2024. This makes Peru the world’s largest exporter of blueberries for the third consecutive year, according to industry association Proarandanos. Peruvian berries find their way to a total of 31 destinations. The bulk of blueberries are exported to the United States, which in 2021-2023 was 123,000 tonnes, accounting for 55 per cent of total exports. Thirty per cent came to Europe: 69,000 tonnes, while Asia accounted for imports of 27,000 tonnes (12 per cent).

The huge export growth in less than 10 years, however, does not take away from the fact that there was a dip in exports in the 2023-2024 season, USDA reports. Due to climatic conditions – including a cyclone and warm winter temperatures due to El Nino – exports in 2023-2024 were 165,000 tonnes, 43 per cent less than in the previous season. Despite this, Peru remained the number one exporter of blueberries. In the 2022-2023 season, the Netherlands was the second largest importer of Peruvian blueberries, after the United States and ahead of China.

Season is speeding up

“The forecast for the current season is comparable to last year,” says Horacio Ozer Ami Gimenez, co-owner of ByBlue, that is dedicated to blue berries with imports from amongst other origins, Peru. He sees that the blueberry production started slowly this season but is now speeding up. “Due to the shortness last year, producers wanted to extend the season and did not prune at the usual time in December. On top of that the whether conditions in the beginning of the spring were not favourable. Both aspects have caused the current season to start late.”

Horacio expects blueberry volumes from Peru to be somewhere between the volume of last year and the volume of 2 years ago. “Production may not have recovered 100 percent, but it recovered quite a lot.” Notwithstanding that, he mentions that the supply curve is complete different than it used to be. “The peak will be a bit less and more spread into the late part of the curve. That could be overlapping the first part of the Chilean blueberry season.” The supply situation also impacts the pricing. “The price is extremely high, but I expect it to go down as the volumes grow in November and December. Later in the season I expect the prices to be balanced and reasonable for both growers and the market.”

Developing tools

The production dip of Peruvian blueberries last season is down to the weather phenomenon El Niño, Horacio sees. “Last year was the first time that Peru experienced El Niño with this amount of hectares of blueberries and because of this high production volume the impact was much bigger than before. The previous version of the weather phenomenon was 8 years ago and back then the blueberry acreage was much lower. The good news is that we see that producers are developing tools to overcome this type of situation in the future.”

An important aspect, because the Horacio sees that, despite extensive growth over the last years, the global blueberry market is still growing. “Depending on the market, the growth is between 8 and 10 percent and can even mount to some 20 percent in relatively new markets that started consuming blueberries in the few last years, like for instance India or Middle Eastern countries. But also in the south of Europe, in countries like Portugal and Spain we see a much higher blueberry consumption, compared to the past. So, growth is still a hot topic in the blueberry market.”

The News in Charts is a collection of stories from the industry complemented by charts from Agronometrics to help better tell their story.

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