“Dutch blueberry market set to have a big boom”

After weeks in which the blueberry supply was at a low volume, much supply is now imminent from Spain, Morocco and Portugal. “The season is delayed, and that resulted in high prices, but low volumes. That’s now going to change,” says Fred Douven from abbGrowers. “The downside is that prices have also started dropping.”

“Fortunately, customers are currently absorbing the blueberries well, so that stocks aren’t becoming too high. From our company alone, 20 tonnes of blueberries per day will enter the programmes in coming weeks, so that’s quite considerable,” Fred continues. “Qualitatively, I think Portugal is best this year, and that isn’t always the case. Spain has very good quality, but also poorer quality on the market, and the latter is caused by early varieties that should’ve already been off the market now. The flavour of Moroccan blueberries, which are now in peak production, isn’t optimal, in my opinion.”

After this month, the production from central and North Portugal will also start in the first full week of June, as well as the Eastern European production. “The final signature for our new company in Serbia has now been placed. We’ll be working with about 170 growers, and that’s the majority of the market,” Fred says. As to the benefits of the Serbian market, he first mentions the window in June, in which the berry supply is limited. Furthermore, abbGrowers will support the growers with quality controls and production-technical guidance on site, and he also thinks there are good options for sales in the southeastern part of and outside of Europe.

For more information:

Fred Douven
abbGrowers
Industriestraat 11
5961 PG Horst, the Netherlands
fred@abbgrowers.com
www.abbgrowers.com