"We have almost doubled the value of our raspberries"

With a commercial calendar that extends from October to June, O.P. Terre della Luce is one of the Italian operators in the production and sale of raspberries, blackberries and blueberries, able to guarantee markets and supermarkets a steady supply for much of the year.

Carmela Suriano, president of the growers' organization, sums up the 2023/24 campaign. "It has been a season with a surprising turn of events, starting with an unexpected and sustained enthusiasm that has remained the same throughout the harvest period. We saw a price increase of at least 30% at launch, with sales closing in the first week of June. Our Happy Berry® brand raspberries have grown from 536,000 euros in 2023 to around 1 million euros today. This is despite the fact that the area under cultivation has remained more or less the same. We are coming out of two difficult seasons, which in the winter months were marked by massive imports of products, mainly from non-EU countries, which made Italian fruit not very competitive. This year, we have also been helped by mild and frost-free weather, which has allowed us to achieve really high quantitative and qualitative standards".

One of the business strategies of the producer organization in Policoro (Matera) is the planning of production in the winter months rather than the summer months, even though demand is high. "The reasons for this are mainly market-related, since the entry into production of Eastern European countries and Northern Italy does not guarantee satisfactory profit margins, given the high production costs that characterize these crops. We do not want external factors to be at the expense of quality."

The company is already planning the next campaign. "In a few days, we will start planting new seedlings gradually. The plants planted above soil are cultivated with sustainable production techniques. The most critical issue for the production of these berries is still to find the skilled labor needed for harvesting, a gap that reduces the possibility of expanding the areas invested in small fruits."