The international blueberry industry is hoping to see a recovery of volumes this year as more consumers around the world enjoy the soft fruit. During this week's Fruit Attraction in Madrid, the International Blueberry Organisation (IBO) gave an overview of the industry. They also announced that the global blueberry industry will descend on South Africa next year for the 2025 IBO Summit. It will take place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre on 25-27 September, 2025.
The BerriesZa team with Mario Steta, President of IBO, (second from right) in Madrid.
Brent Walsh, head of BerriesZA officially invited members of the global blueberry industry to attend the event. "While our industry is young and growing, we have a lot to offer and invite everyone to come and join us next year. Besides the formal program, there will also be farm visits."
Cort Brazelton, CEO of Fall Creek and editor of the IBO State of the Industry global report 2024, said the demand for blueberries globally is still high. "Prices are trending up amidst a year of lower volume. The biggest drive was the shortage in Peru, due to El Niño etc. Morocco and Spain also had weather issues that caused a price rise."
He says they made a new members survey in which they did a 'pulse check' on the industry's key issues that are expected to have an impact moving forward. Brazelton summarised the key points. "Increasing weather events that disrupt the market prompting industry introspection, the impact of the global rising volume, the higher benchmarks on quality, new products and category, the impact of institutional investors, ESG trends and future supply dynamics are all highlighted by members."
Sarah Ilyas, a data scientist at Agronometrics who compile the key statistics for the IBO report, provided a summary of the results. "Globally blueberries are grown in more countries. While there was a 200,000 MT shortage mainly caused by El Niño, it was offset by new plantings."
Brazelton warned that capital expenditure in the industry remain a concern. "Despite high prices, not all growers made money. We may have a year, in a few years time even, with the big jump that the 200,000 MT is not affected by the weather etc. and all of this will come to the market. There's been fast growth in the counter seasonal supply, making the counter season the new peak. The high chill summer season is forecasted to be the new supply gap in volume and quality."
In conclusion, Brazelton provided the following sage advice to the worldwide blueberry industry: "If I were to sit and have a beer with a grower and give advice it will be the following, have a year plan, know what markets to serve, how to serve them, define your process for assessing new genetics and how to meet the capital needs," are some of the critical aspects he noted.
For more information:
International Blueberry Organization
www.internationalblueberry.org
Elzette Schutte
BerriesZA
Tel: +27 82411 0500
[email protected]
www.berriesza.co.za