Industry News

Participating in Fruit Logistica 2024 gave us great insight into the soft fruit market challenges that producers and packing companies in Europe face nowadays. You can read key findings of talks with our clients and people who visited Milbor's booth in this article.

The highbush blueberry is one of the world’s fastest growing markets of fresh fruit. Marketing around these berries is – due to their health-promoting properties – very advantageous, which generates growing per capita consumption. Europe is the second largest importer of this fruit in the world, just behind the United States, so blueberries are grown by more and more European countries, Romania as one of them.

Although there are still almost three months until the beginning of the season in Poland, growing anxiety among soft fruit producers can already be noticed. The closed borders and quarantines caused by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic put into question not only how the market will change, but also whether sufficient seasonal workers will be found.

Manufacturers have recently become increasingly aware of the consequences of using disposable packaging made from plastic and other non-recyclable materials. Consumers are increasingly turning to eco-friendly products packaged in biodegradable packaging. On the other hand, the food industry is looking for solutions that are appealing to customers in technologies to maximize the marketing space for products. This has resulted in changes in the way fruit, vegetables, and other foods are packaged.

Until recently, trays with a lid were the most common packaging for soft fruit in Poland. However, the topseal method, popular in the West, has recently been in more and more frequent use by Polish retail chains. This applies mostly to packaging of tomatoes, blueberries, and other soft fruit.