South African grower and plant manager TopFruit has opened trial plantations of two unique ranges of blueberries for the first time.

The experimental plantations are located in the Aussenhehr region of Namibia and are open to growers and exporters from southern Africa.

Aussenkehr is known for its early season seedless table grapes, but it is now possible that Namibia's Grape Valley could feature in future blueberry exports.

More significantly, South African growers are seeing cultivars from the IQ Berries and Planasa breeding programs in southern Africa for the first time.

Pieter Zietsman, TopFruit's berry manager, said that since the company was able to import the varieties into Namibia three years ago, they can now be seen in local conditions.

“TopFruit has the commercial right to Australia's new IQ Berries private blueberry breeding program and plants for commercial establishments will be available from 2023,” Zietzman said.

So, as table grape vineyards in the desert region along the Orange River awoke from their winter slumber, blueberry growers traveled more than 1000 km to southern Namibia to observe varieties such as MegaEarly and MegaCrisp.

“The focus of the TopFruit blueberry field day was to showcase the growing capacity of the different selections in this region, as well as which varieties from the different breeding programs performed best in terms of production earliness, yield and crop quality. fruit,” Zietsman continued. .

The new IQ Berries varieties showed superior early production of quality fruit, he explained.

“They were the clear favorites of all those varieties present. Yield, as well as size, firmness and a crisp eating feel were the main attributes of MegaEarly and MegaCrisp especially.

“These two varieties begin to mature in July and the harvest is complete by mid-October,” Zietsman said. “Plants for commercial establishments will be available from 2023.”

TopFruit already has a significant presence in Aussenkehr with its presence of Early Sweet as well as Arra table grape varieties.

"This project now also allows Silverlands, and other grape growers in the region, to gain experience in blueberry production techniques, handle very hot and harsh summers and how to cope with irrigation water from the Orange River that can reach high levels." . EC levels.”

Zietsman said one of the high-priority criteria was for the blueberry growing season to fit in with the table grape harvest season that typically begins in mid-November.

Silverlands established the 1ha plot of approximately 5000 plants of 42 different varieties in 2019 to assess the growing potential of blueberries in severe weather, with the option to proceed with commercial plantings in the future.

“TopFruit recently acquired the licensing rights for the IQ Berries breeding program for African countries south of the equator,” he explained. “IQB is located in Brisbane, Australia, and specializes in very early to mid-ripening types of southern highbush blueberries.”

TopFruit says that it currently has two IQ Berries trial sites in Zimbabwe.

As for Namibia, there is already commercial production in Komsberg, on the north bank of the Orange River, as well as in Rundu, in the far north of Namibia.

Zietsman said it was quite feasible that around 100 hectares of blueberries could be established in Aussenkehr in the future, which would boost production in the country.