In mid-June, the blueberry harvest began at Blueberry Giant farm in Weeze, Germany. The harvest of the early Duke variety has now ended, with the TopShelf, Draper, and Valor varieties currently being picked. Harvesting of the Calypso variety is also about to start, reports John Berden, business manager at Blueberry Giant, which primarily supplies German retailers through packer Berry Packing Service in Venlo (also part of the Schrijnwerkers-groep).
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Left: Duke berries on the bush. Right: Company manager John Berden with freshly picked TopShelf berries.
The growing company, located just a stone's throw from the Dutch-German border, comprises no less than 70 hectares of blueberry cultivation. With around 25 hectares, Duke remains the main variety grown, says Berden. "For us, the early segment is still the most profitable: with large volumes of Duke, we are about two weeks ahead of Poland. Once Poland and Romania enter the market with large volumes, prices tend to drop steadily." Depending on weather conditions and demand, harvesting will continue until mid-September.
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Thanks to good harvest results, the Calypso variety is currently quite on the rise
© Hugo Huijbers | FreshPlaza.com
Left: Full berries ripe for picking. Right: sunburn manifests itself, among other things, in discoloured berries, which may, however, recover in the coming weeks.
So far, the season has gotten off to a good start. Berden explains, "The heatwave in week 26/27 brought some challenges. Starting early and stopping early is the motto during such conditions. We're also seeing some signs of fire damage, but this doesn't necessarily lead to volume loss. In terms of potential net yield, we're still on the right side of the spectrum."
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Harvester in operation
© Hugo Huijbers | FreshPlaza.com
Harvester Harvy 500 from supplier FineField
Mechanisation and variety development
Against the backdrop of rising minimum wages in Germany, the challenge remains to keep production costs as low as possible, emphasizes Berden, who now has five harvesting machines at his disposal, including models from FineField. Still, around 120 pickers, mainly from Romania and Ukraine, work on the farm during the harvest peak. Blueberry Giant cultivates exclusively outdoors. "Until last year, we grew the late variety Aurora on 3.5 hectares under rain covers. This is done solely by hand, and we've seen motivation among pickers decline sharply toward the end of the season. This leads to poor picking performance, not to mention the low prices in the late segment. Growing in pots is not an option for us either, as this system doesn't align well with machine harvesting."
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Duke right after picking
At a suitable distance from the main Duke variety are Liberty and Aurora, followed by TopShelf and Calypso. However, the latter is gaining ground, says Berden. "We've doubled our acreage this year to 8 hectares and plan to expand to 12 hectares next year, making Calypso the second-largest variety on our farm in terms of cultivation area. On the other hand, varieties more susceptible to fungal infections, such as OzarkBlue and Bluecrop, will eventually be phased out."
In addition, the early Sekoya variety Crunch is now being grown for the second consecutive year, and it performs well in terms of fruit size and flavor. Cultivation-wise, however, Berden still sees some challenges. "The frost period in March, unfortunately, affected this variety, resulting in low yields."
© Hugo Huijbers | FreshPlaza.com
New plantings of Calypso.
For more information:
John Berden
Blueberry Giant GmbH & Co. KG
Hees 19
47652 Weeze, Germany
Tel: +49 2837 961512
[email protected]
www.blueberry-giant.de
