According to monitoring of Prices EastFruit Wholesale In January 2021, the prices of all types of fresh berries were much lower than the previous year. In particular, imported blueberries are now selling on average 17% cheaper than the previous year, imported fresh raspberries are 30% cheaper and blackberries 31% cheaper than in mid-January 2020.

Taking into account that in the last 12 months, the Russian ruble has lost more than 19% of its value against the dollar and 30% of its value against the euro, the real wholesale prices of berries in dollars and euros are have halved or more. This was possible due to increased production and export volumes and falling world prices for blueberries and other berries supplied in winter from major exporting countries.

In particular, as we already reported,  Peru as the world leader in the blueberry market, at the end of 2020, drastically increased the volume of blueberry exports, but at the same time it hardly increased his income. That is to say, the average wholesale price of blueberries, even in 2020, when the demand for this berry was very high, dropped dramatically. Peru will increase production again in 2021, as will most other blueberry producing countries. Additionally, some unexpected players are popping up on the world map of blueberry exporters. For example, in 2021, according to EastFruit forecasts, Georgia can export between 1200 and 1500 tons of fresh blueberries, supplying them mainly to the Russian market.

Many countries are also beginning to refocus on growing fresh raspberries and blackberries for export. For example,  Peru plans to replicate Chile's success in exporting fresh and frozen raspberries. Raspberry production in Ukraine is also beginning to recover, having fallen sharply after two consecutive seasons of low prices.

The main suppliers of fresh berries to Russia in January-March are Morocco, Chile, Egypt, China, Mexico, Turkey and Peru. In addition, significant volumes of fresh berries from Spain still enter the Russian market through Belarus. In January-March 2020, Russia imported around 8.100 tons of garden strawberries, 1.900 tons of blueberries and 700 tons of fresh raspberries. In 2021, the volume of imports may grow, given the fall in prices.