“We are very positive about our season, which will start in September. Looking at our company, we work 100% with the newer blueberry varieties, such as Snowchaser, Emerald, Farthing, San Joaquin, Kestrel and Ventura. Moreover, the expectations are that the production is very healthy and of good quality”, states Gabriel Wasserman from Gramm Agropecuaria, Argentina. Gabriel explains that his company has invested in a special sorting technology. “This new sorting machine, is able to sort on size, softness, defect and colour automatically. It’s a new generation of sorting technology, which will help us to increase the standard of quality. There are markets such as China that request a high quality, of markets that prefer different packaging or a constant product within the same size range.”
“We will harvest our blueberries in September, October and November”, continues Gabriel. Important for this season is the increase of sea shipments from Argentina. “Our company had really good results on this last season, so we are working hard to increase the sea shipments and therefore volumes exported by sea as well.”
Argentina is in the final stage of opening the Chinese borders to export blueberries. “We are waiting for the confirmation for China to open their market, which is expected soon. However, Argentina has very good logistic connections to the Middle East, Singapore, Kuwait and more. There is a daily flight to each of these destinations. As well, our normal export destinations such as Europe, UK, United States and Canada.”
The Argentinian season has the same window as the Peruvian season. Chile starts their season at the end of the Argentinian season. “It’s a complementary offer. Volume will increase, but on the other hand the blueberry market has increased as well, there is more demand worldwide. Moreover, Peru is able to export to China, so part of their volume will be exported to this market. Argentina will increase sea shipments, so I believe there is a good opportunity for all exporting countries to have a positive season.”
“We expect good prices for this season. Even though prices can be affected by many aspects, like weather, quality, volumes, demand, packaging, etc. Blueberries aren't a commodity fruit, it’s fruit with different requirements, varieties, and flavours. There are customers for each type of berries. Our company offers fresh and frozen blueberries to the international market under the strictest quality rules of the sector, Global Gap,GlobalGraps, HACCP and Tesco Nature. We work with individual traceability through a data gathering system developed by our communication engineers in order to monitor online the features of each harvested fruit lot," concludes Gabriel.
For more information:
Lic. Gabriel Wasserman
Gramm Agropecuaria S.A.
T: +54 911 4086 6666
E: gwasserman@grammsa.com
www.grammsa.com