Eastern Europe

With the longstanding Polish industry accounting for the lion’s share of production and continued growth (See Polish country member summary and report team narrative), Eastern Europe is home to rapidly developing blueberry industries whose young plantings are still in the maturing phase with plenty of volume increases on the horizon.

Spread across a wide geographical expanse – which in this report also includes the Republic of Georgia, a nation technically outside of Europe but to the west of the Caucasus Mountains – Eastern Europe comprises an agglomeration of culturally and climatically diverse nations that have found opportunities in blueberry markets, particularly in Europe and Russia, and to a lesser extent the Middle East. As part of the global trend towards 52-week supply, Eastern Europe itself - especially Poland - has also become a key market in its own right for exporters from the Southern Hemisphere, the Mediterranean and North Africa.

Some of the most aggressive planting has taken place in countries that cater to the June lull between the Spanish season and when large volumes come on in July from Poland, Germany and the Netherlands. The most notable rises targeting this window have come from Romania and Serbia, but there are other smaller pockets of development such as Kosovo, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Ukraine

Ukraine, with a blueberry season that largely overlaps with Poland, has also seen pronounced production rises over the last few years coming from an industry that is relatively sophisticated with sizable operations utilizing modern cooling facilities and sorting lines. There is a greater share of large operations – most of which come from Ukrainian capital, although there are a few from Russian and Kazakh investors – but smallholder farmers have followed suit with tiny plots, similarly to what has occurred in Poland.

Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, the industry was preparing for further investments in advanced infrastructure but since then has been in “survival” mode; a small portion of Ukrainian farms near Kyiv were damaged by military action, but 90% of fields are concentrated west of the capital where the situation has not been as severe, albeit not free from Russian shelling.

At the time of writing, there are concerns about transportation difficulties into the EU for Ukrainian blueberries when the season begins, given the logistical challenge of needing to change trucks and drivers at the border because of the prohibition on men leaving the country, not to mention the effects of inflation including the higher price of a variety of inputs including gasoline. Over the past two years the Ukrainian market has also proven attractive for local growers, at times offering higher prices than export markets, but amidst the war the purchasing power of citizens has been greatly reduced, which has major implications for that domestic sales outlet. The Ukrainian Berries Association has also been hampered in its ability to collect fees from members, limiting its financial capacity to undertake the kinds of educational activities aimed at furthering development. The association’s leadership is based in Poland at the time of writing, and has been working hard to both support the industry and raise charitable funds to help displaced Ukrainians.

Russia

Prior to the war Russia had seen a 25% increase in blueberry planting area year-on-year in 2021, albeit off a low base, and there was a great deal of interest from farmers in a variety of regions to adopt best-of-breed production methods and varieties; the industry at the start of this year could have been described as at an inflection point with domestic producers eager to capitalize on strong demand between import windows. Imports were growing at double digits with Peru as its leading supplier, followed by Morocco, Chile, and then Serbia close behind. Russian import growth from the Republic of Georgia was also surging as that industry’s main export market, although due to the tension between both countries there is a preference amongst Georgian growers to shift their market channels to Europe, the Middle East and Asia. Russia stopped reporting official data following the invasion, but data from Eurostat indicates the country’s imports in fact rose year-on-year in the first three months of 2022. There are reports of long lines at the border of trucks for the exchange of shipments, as European trucks are not allowed into Russia.

Serbia

After Poland, Serbia has the second-largest planting area for blueberries in Eastern Europe although volume-wise it sits just behind Romania. Serbia’s mountainous terrain allows for the manipulation of harvest windows with different varieties, although the predominant cultivar is Duke. Most growers are smallholders, but most exports are from large farms which also source volume from third parties in their local areas.

Some of the more advanced blueberry establishments in Serbia involve investment, resources and expertise from the Netherlands, the United States, the United Arab Emirates and Germany. At least half of the nation’s exports are attributed to a handful of companies. More than half of Serbia’s fresh blueberry exports in 2021 went to the Netherlands, followed by Russia, Germany, the UK and Poland.

Private genetics companies and growers from outside the country are dipping their toes into the Serbian market to train farmers with the necessary skill sets before taking the plunge into partnering on larger-scale commercial programs for proprietary varieties.

With a lack of data and transparency within the industry there are varying views about the extent of certain cultivation methods such as pots and substrate, although on the most conservative estimate at least half are producing this way, and a growing portion have anti-hail nets too. In some hilly areas in the south and southwest the soil is optimal for blueberry production and is conducive to growing larger berries that command price premiums.

Kosovo

Kosovo’s industry is closely connected to Serbia despite their checkered past. As far as the sector is concerned, “both countries fly under the same flag of blueberries”, as one industry leader noted.

The Kosovan blueberry industry was developed with support from USAID over the course of a decade, and after that programme recently ended the Swiss Government-affiliated Caritas took up the baton and has been helping small farmers with a programme that will last until 2025. Kosovo’s production has been growing rapidly with a window that is normally between late May and July, although the season commencement was 10 days late in 2021, meaning exporters missed out on a window with the best prices. A heatwave also led to damages for late varieties such as Liberty and Aurora (in a country where, like in Serbia, the leading variety is Duke), but those with fog systems were able to avoid the damage. Most growers were not ready for this form of protection though, as they had just been through a severe hail event in 2020 when half the crop was lost, prompting widespread investments in anti-hail nets that are now estimated to be in use for around half the planted hectares.

Kosovo has a similar cost per hectare to Serbia. Its percentage of substrate production in pots is lower at 25%, but growers who plant in fields still use white peat as substrate and yields are currently higher than in Serbia with aspirations towards a Dutch-style, high-density industry.

Elsewhere in the Balkans, other emerging blueberry industries include Bosnia & Herzegovina and Croatia.

Romania

To the east of Serbia, the bulk of Romania’s production is in the foothills of the Carpathian Mountains on either side of the range, with the season running a week later than Serbia in the south and two weeks later in the north. This allows for harvests from mid-June to late August.

There are more than 300 independent growers in Romania, most of whom are smallholder farmers, but the handful of larger operations that exist are working towards becoming a cooperative with advanced irrigation systems, automated packhouses and modern sorting technology. Some are also experimenting with next-gen varieties from the United States, Spain and elsewhere.

Romania has the added benefit that it can draw on a workforce who already have years of experience working on blueberry fields in Spain, and can return to Romania to continue working once the Spanish season is finished each year. As is the case everywhere, the Romanian industry is battling with input inflation, but that hasn’t stopped interest from new investors including a Canadian company that is assessing the viability of a large development by Romania’s standards.

Republic of Georgia

On the opposite side of the Black Sea from Romania sits the Republic of Georgia, a nation that has only been experimenting with blueberries for less than five years and is on the precipice of massive growth, mostly in the form of southern highbush blueberry varieties although the mountainous topography allows for northern highbush growing in certain areas. With tunnel production the industry is capable of growing the fruit in May, but the season is concentrated in June and July with some volume in August. The bulk of plantings are in western Georgia in the regions of Guria, Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti and Imereti.

The typical farm in the Republic of Georgia is one hectare or less – a tendency that has been encouraged by government grants to smallholder farmers to plant blueberries, mostly with older varieties as well. As such a new industry, there is a wide gap in knowledge which is not helped by the fact most educational materials are not in languages that are very accessible to the average Georgian farmer. There are an estimated 40 farmers in Georgia who have blueberry farms that are larger than 20ha.

In parallel to the trends across Eastern Europe, the proliferation of small growers detracts from the fact that most of the blueberry volume comes from larger entities, which in Georgia is about 90%. There are an estimated 40 farmers in Georgia who have blueberry farms that are larger than 20ha. As has been the case in Serbia there has been investment into a large farm from a UAE-affiliated entity, as well as investors from India. In 2020 one of the world’s largest blueberry breeders and nurseries from the U.S. set up shop in the country, with around 11 next-gen varieties under trial. Growers also are known to source plant material from Polish nurseries.

There is further opportunity for large operations to be developed as well thanks to another government programme committing grants towards seedlings and irrigation systems for citizens on plots of land between 0.5ha and 50ha. This can be for any crop, including blueberries.