Blueberry growers in South Africa and Zimbabwe have started harvesting the 2025 crop, with good demand locally and overseas
Southern Africa’s blueberry marketing season only ended in early February, but the new campaign has already started.
This means that South African growers are now supplying the fast-growing local market for virtually the whole year, with exports also continuing to grow.
From the 2024 crop South Africa exported some 21,000 tons, with volumes in Zimbabwe – although a much smaller producer – also continuing to increase.
The production season between March and June is mainly based in the northern parts of South Africa, with the bulk of the crop only coming into play when the Western Cape growers and exporters start packing and shipping.
A major new development is the arrival and growth in plantings of the newly released blueberry variety MegaEarly, from the IQBerries breeding programme.
The variety also offers significant opportunities for growers as high up in Africa as Kenya.
TopFruit’s Pieter Zietsman called MegaEarly an ”exceptional variety” bred by Peter Rolfe of Brisbane in Australia, described as a true no-chill evergreen-type plant that is planted from the cool climate of Western Cape in South Africa to Naivasha in Kenya.
“Worldwide it is also planted in countries such as Peru, Mexico, Europe, Morocco as well as Australia and New Zealand,” he said. ”In Mexico it proved that with pruning techniques it can produce fruit in October or March in different geographical regions.”
MegaEarly is seen as ideal for warmer climates such as the northern parts of South Africa and Zimbabwe, Zietsman explained.
“In these regions a timely pruning by end of September led to growers starting to pick their first MegaEarly fruit in March 2025,” he continued. ”Currently plants in regions such as Brits will see peak production from May to September.
In recent trials in Kenya MegaEarly started ripening ahead of all other varieties planted at that site.”
Even in the Western Cape, the first pick of the variety in 2025 was done during the last week of April on farms in Trawal, Porterville, as well as at Paarl.
Zietsman said that what makes MegaEarly unique is not only the early production, but also fruit quality.
“During the 2024 harvest season at several sites in South Africa, the average durofel firmness of the berries was 86 lasting until the end of the picking season,” he said. ”The average fruit size was 19-20mm with 75 per cent of all fruit picked 18mm and bigger, and with an average sugar Brix of 13.”
The variety also performs very well in storage and transit, Zietsman noted.
“Results of shelf-life tests proved that MegaEarly can be stored for 42 days at 0°C with only 5 per cent defects. Firmness as well as eating quality was still exceptional.”
The sweet, crispy taste and popping sensation when eating has earned it ”outstanding reviews” from several supermarkets in the UK, he confirmed.
A Marks an Spencer report read that the variety produced a “very subtle and pleasant eating experience… flavour is not acidic or too overwhelming, a slight perfume aroma. Good level of bloom, consistent sizing and excellent presentation. Would qualify for top tier”.
MegaEarly is also seen as production friendly.
“The other major advantage of this variety is its pick ability; due to the long stems of the fruit harvesting costs are much lower as the fruit is very presentable and is picked with ease resulting in a 50 per cent saving in picking time and labour costs,” Zietsman said.
MegaEarly, as well as the other varieties from IQBerries, is licensed by TopFruit in all territories of sub-Sahara Africa.
Currently these varieties are planted in 35 trial and commercial sites in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Kenya.
