“You know the blueberry trends, but this year I had to throw my blueberry marketing manual out the door, with all the trends and statistics,” says Tiaan Rossouw, CEO of Rainbow Superfood, a berry exporter.

Exactly a year ago, Tiaan told FreshPlaza that he didn't know how farmers would survive. He then commented that the price could probably never go lower than it was during 2022/2023; This year, the significant reduction (up to 65%, some say) of Peruvian blueberries has thrown them a lifeline.

“Peru multiplies our volume tenfold, so it's fantastic for us. We really needed it. “I feel sympathy for them, but our farmers have been really hurt in the last two years and South African farmers are not getting any government subsidies to help them.” And he continues: “We can't do it as cheaply as Peru and last year many farmers were at their limit. It's good to be able to offer farmers a price that helps them get out of debt. “They were two horrible years for blueberry producers.”

The commercial market replaces fixed programss

This year is a commercial market where generally fixed programs were the way to go for blueberries in Europe and the UK.

«I see that prices were stabilizing, but they have been between 40% and 70% better than last year. “This year I couldn’t have predicted it in my wildest dreams.” Typically, prices in Asia are higher, but this year, Tiaan says, Europe has regained some dominance: “Prices justify air freight with supposedly lower quality risk and traditionally faster returns.”

“We have to keep flying when we should have started shipping.” Typically they would like to switch to sea freight, but sea freight is again a big concern for South African exporters and importers.

He has just learned, Tiaan says, that a shipment he had promised to a recipient will now arrive a month later. due to the changes that shipping lines are making to avoid calling in Cape Town, for example replacing it with Mauritius as Maersk has announced it intends to do. «

«I had to tell the packer to stop packing. This is the kind of thing that makes you lose a customer. I have never shipped so much product in my life. It seems that I am no longer an exporter, I am a logistics agent. Problems at ports mean that stone fruit and lychee also compete for air transport space to Europe.

Unfortunately, air transportation does not guarantee any claims.
“The bad thing is that the temperature of air transport is managed increasingly worse. There is a peak of 15°C to 22°C, then there are often stopovers where there are up to 8 hours on the track and temperatures can reach up to 40°C. It's not something new, but it seems to me that there is more negligence on the part of air transport companies. “I think they are taking advantage of the situation right now.”

In his opinion, fourteen days on a ship is safer than air transport and he tells how he has taken blueberries to the Middle East, followed by a shipment, and then received a complaint about the fruit transported by plane, while the fruit transported by Sea is in excellent condition.

“If only shipping lines could restore some confidence by acting together. There is still a lot of water to flow into the sea. I have been exporting berries from farms in KwaZulu-Natal and in the north, and I have yet to get 80% of the volumes from my own farm. We bottle until mid or end of January.

He notes that the northern blueberry export crop slowed markedly when the fruit took a long time to develop color, but the fruit he received looked really good. “It was a really successful season for northern producers, it's just that volumes went down. "Buyers hope the fruit will come from Chile, but damage caused by early rains in Chile and a late harvest will likely mean the South African season will end well."