The first export shipments to the Middle East and Asia took place 3 weeks ago with the first European shipments of 6 tonnes sent to Rotterdam at the end of last week. It is all airfreight at the moment as volumes are still relatively small. Roger Horak from United Exports said that they will increase volumes as the Polish supply winds down.
“We want to fill the gap between the Polish supply and the main Chilean volumes which we expect to arrive in December and January. We can also get the fruit to the market faster than other southern hemisphere producers due to the shorter sea freight transit time.”
The estimate was around 2-300 tonnes for this season but according to Roger the actual volumes will be much bigger.
The yields being achieved by the South African growers are quite amazing. The varieties grown are from the Oz blueberry program, bred by Dave Mazzardis out of Western Australia, they are the new generation of evergreen types and grow very aggressively, “The oldest commercial plants we have in South Africa are only two years old, normally a bush would take 4 years before it produced the volumes we are seeing. We are continually planting more area, but at the moment we have 150-160 ha," concludes Horak.
For more information:
Roger Horak
United Exports Pty Ltd
Tel: +61 8 94562580
Email: roger@unitedexports.com.au
www.united-exports.com