Berries Market Digest w11

Weekly Berries Market Updates

Main Price Movements in the EU

During the past week, the main topic of discussion between our representatives and market operators was the surplus of strawberry supply across the main European wholesale markets. As a result, strawberry prices fell across markets and origins, and the same held for blueberry imports. Raspberry trading is still plagued by the recent scandal revolving around the alleged poor phytosanitary conditions in Moroccan exports that cater to the bulk of Europe's raspberry demand, leading to product scarcity. All the previous are showcased in the data we share below from the German fresh produce wholesale markets, as well as the market of Rungis, France.

The extraordinarily warm weather in Italy and Spain in the past weeks has resulted in a surge in strawberry supply across all major European fresh produce wholesale markets, even though climate challenges have also caused multiple problems in primary production. Demand did not follow on this track, and it was not moved by the widespread satisfaction around fruit quality, resulting in an excessive supply of the fruit around Europe.

The stability or even withdrawal in demand was mainly driven by weather deterioration in many areas around the continent. Strawberry consumption is linked to warm weather in end-consumers' minds, so these conditions discouraged consumer demand, as reported by our representatives in Italy and Belgium. Supply is expected to be further reinforced through the influx of Californian strawberries, with harvest there slowly approaching its peak.

Challenges in Sight for the Berries Segment

The Indian government implemented a decisive cut in tariffs imposed on imported Chilean blueberries. This comes as part of a series of steps adopted by India to open its agricultural markets and allow influxes of produce from foreign and more efficient producing countries. Chile is a major producer of blueberries that exports almost worldwide, and its offerings are highly competitive to those of European countries. Even though only a handful of the latter have the volume capacity to make significant exports to third countries (as shown below), we expect that this development will impact their domestic sectors. And this is because we saw a similar pattern occurring when India lifted its embargo on kiwi from Iran last October.

Another recent development expected to stir the grounds in berry trading was the provisional agreement reached by the European Parliament and Council on the "greening" of fresh produce packaging. The pledge provides for the commitment of EU member states to reduce plastic packaging waste by 5% up to 2030. Measures were also agreed to increase the minimum recycled content requirements for fresh produce packaging and provisions to increase the reuse of plastic containers.