Logie Cassells from LoveHoneyberry said that the honeyberry offers huge potential to growers in Northern regions where the berry thrives. In Europe, it can grow from the tip of Scotland down to Northern Italy. This gives northern growers an edge because it can't be grown in Spain like blueberries, so there won't be extra pressure from the Mediterranean.
Jan Marc Schultz from SFI Rotterdam said that he believes that the best way to start introducing consumers to this new berry is by juices or other processed forms of the super fruit. The Honeyberry juice made by Haskapa has already won many awards and is seeing a lot of success.
"I think that introducing the Honeyberry too quickly is dangerous. We only have one chance to introduce the customer to this new product and if we try to supply them fresh berries before we have fully developed the taste or quality, we could lose them. Let's wait to start until we have established the name." urged Jan Marc.
Along with being cautious with the introduction of the berry, there are still some barriers in the EU, namely the Novel Food Legislation from 1997. This will be changed by the first of January 2018, but it is still not yet clear if the berry can be marketed in the EU. This is why Jan Marc thinks a great market to begin with is Switzerland. Some production was introduced this summer and the fact that the country is not part of the EU, but still in central/western Europe, could help get the word out to neighbouring countries.
Janja Postruznik from Haskap Doo was more positive about introducing the fresh Honeyberry also known as Haskap to the consumer market within the next few years. They were the first to have orchards in Slovenia back in 2014. The company consists of a group of Haskap growers, who have grown to a total production area of 32 hectares. The haskap variety offered by the company was developed by Bob Bors from the University of Saskatchewan, creating special varieties with high sugar content.
In terms of marketing, Peter Stremer from the Nordrhein-Westfalen Chamber of Commerce in Germany, gave insight into the German market potential for this new product. He shared that German consumers are eating more berries and are increasingly interested in products for their health benefits, have an interest in regional products and are very focused on organics. The honeyberry ticks all of these boxes by being a lifestyle product which is a leading berry in antioxidant ingredients, can be grown in colder environments and is easily grown as organic. Also, it has been shown that younger consumers, families and higher income buyers are willing to pay more for these products, which means that there is a lot of opportunity to achieve higher prices.
"The important thing that we need to emphasise is that growers need to patient if they want to have a healthy and tasty fruit. There have been a lot of advances recently in terms of new varieties which are quite sweet and we have been advising growers not to pick until the fruit has reached a brix level of at least 15. We also need to set up better quality standards about varieties, taste, shape and weeding out the bad and rotten fruit." said Peter.
"Once we are able to work out these issues, I am sure that our growers can have a promising future growing the Honeyberry."