Global markets will be flooded with blueberries from the second week of November, according to Peter McPherson of Australian grower-exporter Berry Exchange.
Mr McPherson told Fruitnet.com the delayed peak harvests from the Chilean and Argentinean seasons would coincide to produce a glut.
“There’s going to be an enormous glut of blueberries globally from the second week of November to Christmas,” he said. “It’s going to be a bloodbath.”
During that period Australian blueberry exporters, of which Berry Exchange is by far the largest, will simply try to maintain current customer relationships, leveraging the country’s reputation for high quality berries, Mr McPherson said.
Australia’s blueberry exports have been travelling well in Asia up to this point, with the first few weeks of the season consistent with previous years in terms of volumes.
In Europe and the UK retail programmes have been disrupted by bumpy supplied from Argentina.
“We had two or three good weeks, a lull, then a few more good weeks, and now we’re in another lull,” he explains. “That’s due to problems with Argentine fruit.
“They told the market they had fruit, and then they had problems with the weather and couldn’t supply the market, so people came clamouring for us. It makes it very hard to establish reliable retail programmes.”
Prices in Europe and the UK have remained low, and the high value of the Australian dollar is also causing headaches for exporters.
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