Supplies of blueberries in North America are tighter than usual due largely to issues in logistics.
Currently, blueberries are largely coming in from Chile, which began shipping in the new year, to supply the east coast while Mexican supplies are destined mostly to the west coast.
“Supplies from Chile have been good so far. There are some labor supply challenges down there though which creates headaches for the growers from a production standpoint—that’s mostly due to competition for the same labor force,” says Tom Beaver of Glassboro, NJ-based Sunny Valley International. Beaver also adds that Peruvian supplies have also stopped earlier than anticipated this year. “Last year they were around a little longer and they’d always taper off around now. But it seems like the tapering was a little more dramatic this year.”
Durable vs. perishable goods
The concern however is the delays in shipping due to issues at the Port of Los Angeles. “They’ve seen a surge in not just produce arrivals but durable goods being sold online. That’s created an unprecedented backlog at the port,” says Beaver. “Everything’s been thrown off because of this. Vessels that were supposed to arrive at the beginning of the week don’t arrive until later in the week.”
While the offshore volume is available, Beaver says the challenges are in scheduling the availability of fruit for the foreseeable future.
Delays like this could potentially create some concerning scenarios. “I think what we’re going to see ultimately is volume that was intended for the west coast coming this way. That hasn’t happened yet, at least in the ports of Wilmington and Philadelphia, which are our two primary hubs. But that could create issues for us from a marketing perspective if fruit originally intended for the west coast starts coming here,” he says. “It creates more competition and more volume on the east coast. So far we haven’t seen that manifest itself though.”
That said, he doesn’t anticipate the Chilean season to end later than usual given these logistics challenges. “We have a lot of volume booked and headed our way from now until late March,” says Beaver.
Demand consistently strong
Of course, in turn, demand has been strong for blueberries. “There’s just less fruit available day to day and that’s resulted in an uptick in demand overall,” says Beaver. That said, blueberries have done well as a commodity in the pandemic. “When COVID hit last year, we were concerned about the market going into a tailspin and that we’d have trouble moving perishables. But in the last year we’ve seen strong demand pretty consistently. This surge in retail grocery shopping and online shopping has helped keep demand pretty steady,” says Beaver, adding that as part of that, consumers have also been interested in larger pack sizes of blueberries as well this year.
Given the limited supplies and high demand, it’s created a market with strong pricing, particularly in the spot market. “Anything I have is committed already or I could sell all of it in one phone call. Everyone’s looking and there’s not that much there right now,” says Beaver. “The price has come up considerably in the last two weeks and hopefully that holds up with Peru backing out of the deal a little earlier than expected. That benefits Chilean and Mexican growers and shippers.”
Looking ahead, Beaver notes that peak volumes from Chile should come in the next week or so and run through to early March. “We think there’ll be a lot of strong market opportunities and anticipate pricing and demand to be pretty strong,” he says. “That said, if suddenly things break open and there’s all kinds of volume coming in this direction, we’ll have to be responsive. We’re taking it one day at a time with inbound arrivals.”
For more information:
Tom Beaver
Sunny Valley International
Tel: +1 (856) 881-0200
tbeaver@sunnyint.com
http://www.sunnyint.com/