Ukrainian company Blue Berry has started the harvesting season for fresh blueberries on a berry plantation in sunny Transcarpathia, East Fruit reports. Blueberries under the “BlueBerry” brand are now available in supermarket chains in Ukraine. The producer is certified by GlobalG.AP (GRASP) and SEDEX.

In 2023, EastFruit analysts expect an increase in fresh blueberry exports from Ukraine as production is expected to rise sharply despite some weather issues. Furthermore, the internal market is still very small, with millions of consumers still remaining as refugees in the EU.

In 2022, Ukraine exported more than 2 tons of fresh blueberries, an increase of 500 times compared to 1,5. The main markets for Ukrainian blueberries in 2021 were Poland, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Moldova. In 2022 Ukraine is expected to export more blueberries to EU countries.

As for the Blue Berry company, one of the first groups to start harvesting these berries in 2023, it reports a pretty good performance in the current year. Despite spring frosts affecting the harvest of many Ukrainian berry growers, the Blue Berry team took steps to counteract the impact of spring frosts on a blueberry plantation in Transcarpathia and managed to get a pretty good yield.

As Natalya Pukshin, CEO of the company, previously reported, the team began to engage in the berry business 10 years ago, in 2013. They learned from the experience of companies in the US and Poland, and then the team decided implement a promising project in Ukraine in the berry sector, working specifically on blueberries. They chose Transcarpathia, where the climatic conditions are more favorable for the cultivation of blueberries. In this region, an average of 165 warm and sunny days are observed per calendar year.