Over the past few months, the UK's blueberry supply has been dominated by Peru, supported by South Africa. However, the market is now transitioning to sources from Chile, Morocco, and Spain.
"The quality of the Peruvian blueberries in general has been very good, better than previous years," according to Ben Goodchild from Nationwide Produce. "There are always a few problems when the fruit is sea freighted, but Peru seemed to really be focussed on quality to come back from poor availability season last year and maybe to cement their spot as the number one source during the Northern Hemisphere winter. Although we are not involved with South African blueberries this year, there appeared to be good volumes in the retailers this year. This may suggest more stability in prices."
The first blueberries from Chile have arrived this week and Morocco is just getting started, Spain is also on the market but with very high prices and low pick volumes.
"The Chilean arrivals are of mixed quality at the moment, the punneted fruit is good, both in flavour and size. The quality of the bulk arrivals is mixed, but this can happen when containers are on the water for four weeks and will depend on the type of controlled atmosphere system shippers have chosen to use. The early Spanish and Moroccan season has started, but the cold weather has slowed production and prices are high, but supply will be better in a couple of weeks."
Ben said in general produce across the board doesn't really see a boost from people's health kicks in January as they tend to have over-eaten and over-spent in December and it seems a long time until the end of January.
"The first two weeks in January are typically slow, but this week there seems to be a change in the air, maybe as people can see their paychecks in sight and don't mind dipping into the overdraft a little."
For more information:
Ben Goodchild
Nationwide Produce
Tel: +44 (0)1386 424800
Email: [email protected]
www.nationwideproduce.com