United States: Strong market for blueberries

25/01/2016

During the blueberry import campaign, companies like Giumarra, Wish Farms, Homegrown Organic, California Giant, and Dave's Discuss, are reporting a strong market for blueberries, and a growing demand for this fruit.

Giumarra is beginning to enter with more important volumes during its importation campaign from Chile. Currently it is supplied with blueberries from Chile, Peru, and now Mexico. Chile, in particular, had a slower start given the cold weather and rains recorded at the beginning of the season, which delayed production and had an effect of delays from the producing regions.

“The weather in Chile, prior to the season, has affected production, so not only has the season been delayed, but also the volume has been reduced. “Prices at the moment are a little stronger than seen historically.”said Marco Nuques, Head of the berry division of the East Coast of Giumarra. «This is usually the period in which we begin to see the peak of volumes, but given that Chile is late, we may not have volumes according to the expected levels«.

The market

"We are going to see an increase in Mexico's volumes, coming in the coming weeks, but it will probably not be a volume that could dramatically affect the market," continued Nuques. “We have seen a good increase in our imports of Peruvian blueberries this year, which started in September. “This has been a great complement to our global imported berry program.”.

Meanwhile, Leslie Simmons, Dave's special import marketing manager, also reported an offer one or two weeks late.

"The market seems to remain stable, and demand has remained favorable", added the professional.

Simmons also noted that Dave's biggest development has been given by the increase in organic products this season, such as cranberry and blackberries, so they hope to generate stronger programs for the coming seasons.

Despite the shortage in the volume of Chile, the general message seems to be that the quality of the fruit is up to par and that both producers and recipients in the United States are happy with what Chile is sending this season.

"The quality of imports from Chile and New Zealand has been good so far", said Chad Hansen, Cranberry Category Manager at Homegrown Organic Farms.

Meanwhile, California Vice President of Marketing Giant Berry Farms, Cindy Jewel, said: “We have had excellent quality and size of the fruit, and we hope to carry out strong promotional programs to support the campaign. "Currently the market is strong and our commercial partners are promoting to maintain, on the one hand, volume movement and, on the other, growing demand from consumers."

California Giant will continue after the import season with local spring crops in California, which usually begin in late March and early April.

Source: SimFruit