"There is a shortage of blueberries in the market. So far this season, Peru's exports are said to have fallen by almost 40% because temperatures in some parts of the country have been higher than normal, and we cannot forget that Peruvian blueberries are the ones supplying the main markets in the world. We are talking about thousands of tons of fruit, and that is having clear consequences; in fact, the market should be flooded with fruit right now and, instead, there is a significant shortage," said Eduardo Lopez, of Campoberry.
"At Campoberry we are noticing that higher demand in the market and we are receiving many calls from customers interested in buying our production, but we are going to prioritize supplying our regular customers before any new buyers. Also, right now we have less fruit compared to other seasons, because the blueberry season on the Cantabrian coast started about 15 days earlier than last year."
"We started on May 26-27 and by the end of August we were already more than 40 tons ahead of the volume harvested at the same time in the previous year. That's why we anticipate that we won't get to November, like other years, but we will finish quite a bit earlier, around October 10."
"Regarding the European production, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy and even Poland reach their peaks for about 3 or 4 weeks, between July 25 and August 15, and both before and after, the European supply on the market is almost insignificant. This year, however, we haven't noticed any halt in our sales during those weeks of local European production. Customers have continued working also with us."
There started to be interest in Campoberry blueberries, grown by producers in Cantabria, Asturias and Galicia, already in the spring, according to Eduardo. "In April, we were already getting calls from some customers asking when we were going to start, because with the heat at that time and the irrigation restrictions in Huelva, there were growers who were unable to harvest the expected productions. You could say the current shortage is a direct consequence of that."
If the situation continues like this, blueberry prices could increase. "So far, prices have been very good; they have improved compared to the previous season. However, in cases of shortage, it is company policy for us not to raise prices to those of our regular customers who don't push us to lower the prices when there is a lot of fruit available."
As the end of the blueberry season approaches in northern Spain, the markets are keeping a watchful eye on the weather and the forecasts of different organizations in Peru, such as the International Research Center on El Niño (CIFEN), which in its latest bulletin, published in August, predicted that "during the rest of the year, there is a very high probability (+97%) of El Niño conditions" and that "these conditions will be maintained at least in the first quarter of 2024. There will be a gap in the blueberry supply this year," said Eduardo.
For more information:
Campoberry
El Charcón 837
39.191 Güemes, Cantabria. Spain
Tel.: +34 696 570 202
eduardo@campoberry.com
https://campoberry.com