An "astronomical" amount of blueberries will be cropped in Peru this year, their largest harvest yet in a succession of huge yearly increases, and for South Africa, which exports roughly a twentieth of Peru's blueberries, it colours every marketing decision. In 2024, South African blueberry producers saw a 40% rise in price for frozen berries specifically because Peru had lower volumes available than originally anticipated.
"This year we're expecting 400,000 tonnes of blueberries from Peru, the most they've ever done," says Herman van Dyk, chairperson of industry organization BerriesZA. The Northern Hemisphere hasn't yet made the switch over to Southern Hemisphere berries, but locally, Zimbabwe's crop has kicked off, and Limpopo blueberry farms will follow soon.
Final crop estimates are still coming in from blueberry farms across the country, therefore, no official South African figure for the 2025 season is available yet.
In the Western Cape, where Van Dyk is based as COO of Six33 Produce, blueberry growers are excited, he says: the fruit is looking very good with the very earliest primo cane possibly by the end of June and early July, and the peak of harvesting from August onwards.
© Carolize Jansen | FreshPlaza.com
Tariffs on Peru will impact South Africa
"Peru has market access to China, which we don't have yet, but the USA remains their primary market. Aggressive tariff adjustments on Peruvian blueberries by the US administration would be to our detriment because they'll be sending even more to Europe than they currently do."
The same dynamic just played out in the table grape seasons, Van Dyk remarks: in the face of an oversupply, and to protect their prices in their main market, Peruvian exporters send surplus or lower quality fruit to Europe and the UK, where South African fruit exports directly feel the impact.
Between 70% and 80% of South Africa's blueberries are sent to the United Kingdom and Europe, a mature blueberry market, and since 2023, another mature market – Canada – has been added to the country's export options.
He points out that the amounts sent to the Far East – Malaysia, Singapore, and a bit to Thailand – increase every year, and they cannot wait for China to become part of their playbook.
"In the East, there is a very strong trend towards very fancy packaging and tube packing, to present the blueberries as a gift in the East. A larger blueberry is required for the East because if they make all that effort with the packaging, the fruit inside needs to be of the same high standard."
"We're hard at work with the negotiations around India, we're in the final stretch, and we hope we can carry it over the line this season already."
For more information:
Herman van Dyk
BerriesZA
Tel: +27 82 411 0500
Email: elzette@berriesa.co.za
https://www.berriesza.co.za/