Blueberry market in Romania

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. Here are the latest trends and case studies describing the blueberry market in Romania.

The blueberry market seeks investments 

Many Romanian growers have already grown blueberries on more than 200 ha of land. They also continue to invest in new plantations and technologies, such as anti-hail and irrigation systems. These investments are facilitated by 50% allowances of the investment value and government or EU subsidies. The success of this production encourages other growers to grow highbush blueberries. The blueberry harvest in Romania starts at the beginning of June, which is earlier than in Poland, Germany and other Central European countries, and the season comes to an end in September. Relatively low labour costs give Romanian producers a competitive advantage over their Western neighbours. This has to be put in the context of one of the major challenges the growers face, which is the lack of seasonal labour. So, what are the directions of development for the blueberry market in Romania?

The blueberry industry in Romania: good practices

The highbush blueberry has been grown on a commercial scale for 10 years in Romania. Vital Berry, founded in 2006, is an example of a large, modern company producing blueberries. The highbush blueberry was grown on 6 ha at that time, with the dominating ‘Duke’ variety. Over the years, this area has been increased to 75 ha, as there are plans for further plantings to obtain up to 100 ha. In addition to ‘Duke’, the grown varieties include ‘Bluecrop’, ‘Blue Gold’, ‘Toro’, ‘Nui’, ‘Nelson’ and ‘Legacy’. Harvest on these plantations begins around 20 June and lasts until the beginning of September. This producer currently has an annual yield of 380-400 tonnes of blueberry fruit, but forecasts indicate that the production could increase to 1,000 tonnes in 3 years. The berries are packaged in 125, 250 and 500 g containers, and since 2014 they have been sold to retailers in the Kaufland and Lidl chains across the country. Exports to Hungary, Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and the UK are among other important destinations.

Blueberry Romania: trend of integration of smaller growers

Observing a growing demand for blueberries, even large Romanian companies operating on their own, will find it increasingly difficult to provide sufficient fruit volumes to Western European countries. For this reason, Romanian growers have started to form groups, which will allow them to offer larger volumes of the same goods. This trend of collaboration is getting more and more popular in the blueberry market in Romania.

For the intensively growing blueberry production in Romania, it is becoming important to buy equipment to improve the process of preparing the fruit for exports.

Fruitopia is an example of a producer group already operating in Romania, founded in 2018. It is the first and currently the largest group of Romanian blueberry growers, and the member companies include: TwoBerries (a plantation owned by Ardelean Romina Cristina II), Sunny Berry by Ancafina SRL, Everex PRO SRL, Tudose Crina Monalisa II, Ideal Biofruits SRL and Afina Dulce SRL, where blueberries are grown on a total of 50 ha and current yields from these plantations total around 260 tonnes of fruit. Two of them, Ideal Biofruits SRL and Afina Dulce SRL, are newly established plantations, and their fruit will only be marketed over the next three years. As a result, the group’s estimated total production is set to rise in the near future by 60 tonnes of fruit obtained from the new 20 ha of crops. Overall, the predicted production volumes in this group could even triple by 2023. The varieties grown in the Fruitopia member plantations are ‘Duke’ (main), ‘Elliott’, ‘Bluecrop’ and ‘Aurora’. Fruit is packed in 125, 250 and 1 kg containers or in bulk 3 kg cardboard boxes.

Owing to the collaboration with blueberry growers in different regions of Romania, Fruitopia is able to harvest for 120 days and thus extend the supply of its fruit product. Harvest begins in early June and lasts until mid-September. As a result, the group can supply multiple markets at different times. The harvest in Romania takes place partly between the seasons in Spain, Poland and Germany, so the company can fill in the supply shortage gaps. Fruitopia exports 65% of its total production to the European Union, while the rest of the fruit goes to the local market.

The article was published in the journal “Jagodnik” no 7/2020