Very high prices for the entire berries category, especially for blueberries and raspberries. The quality standards are good, with peaks of spoilage. There are no middle grounds, but the worst ones generally correspond to the older production batches. Perhaps this is due to the high prices.
On the shelves of large-scale distribution, the product is missing, there are stockouts: few baskets and many brands. The blueberries come from Italy, Peru, Poland, and Portugal.
These are some of the findings of the Italian Berry Retail Monitor, which today, September 17, 2024, made a stop in Padua, a city where 20 points of sale belonging to 14 large-scale distribution groups were visited.
Here are the stores: Aldi, Alìper, Conad City, Conad Superstore, Coop, Eurospar, Eurospin, Famila, In's, Iper Spar, Iperlando, Lidl, MD, Pam, Prix, Rossetto, Spazio Conad, Super A&O.
At the time of the visit, berries were not available in the fruit and vegetable departments of Aldi and Spak.
Assortment: 3.1 references per point of sale
In the points of sale visited, there were between one and seven references, with an average of 3.1 references.
89% of the stores carry raspberries; 94% carry blueberries; 72% carry blackberries; 44% carry red currants, and 22% carry the mixed berry pack.
Range: four or more references for half of the stores
Let’s see how these references are distributed. 11% of the stores with berries in their assortment carry only one reference; 39% have two or three references; the remaining 50% have four or more references for sale.
Quality
By quality, we refer to the health of the product, measured by the Observatory’s technicians in terms of: absence of significant defects; healthy but not ideal conditions (not fresh, tired, wilted, dull, without bloom); presence of damaged fruit and juice; presence of spoiled fruit and mold.
The groups with the best quality were F.lli Lando, Rossetto, and Selex.
Sales Prices
- Raspberries (20 observations): min. €19.92/kg – max. €28.00/kg – average €23.27/kg
- Blueberries (25 observations): min. €14.32/kg – max. €31.92/kg – average €23.59/kg
- Blackberries (15 observations): min. €15.16/kg – max. €23.92/kg – average €21.74/kg
- Red currants (8 observations): min. €15.84/kg – max. €23.92/kg – average €18.21/kg
- Mixed berry pack (4 observations): min. €13.27/kg – max. €21.93/kg – average €18.43/kg
- Total (72 observations): min. €13.27/kg – max. €31.92/kg – average €22.23/kg.
| Retailer | Two-pack | Raspberries | Blueberries | Mix | Blackberries | Red currants | Three-pack |
| MD | 23,12 | 31,92 | |||||
| iN's | 23,92 | 27,92 | |||||
| Pam | 26,32 | 29,52 | 23,92 | 19,92 | |||
| Famila | 23,92 | ||||||
| Eurospin | 23,92 | 23,92 | 23,92 | ||||
| Alìper | 28,00 | 23,33 | 23,92 | 19,93 | |||
| Alì | 23,33 | 23,92 | 23,92 | ||||
| Coop | 23,04 | 23,04 | |||||
| Conad Superstore | 23,12 | 23,12 | 19,92 | ||||
| Super A&O | 23,12 | 23,92 | 23,92 | 15,92 | 19,93 | ||
| Iperlando | 23,84 | 23,84 | 20,00 | 15,84 | |||
| Conad City | 23,92 | 22,32 | 15,96 | 20,72 | |||
| Iper Spar | 21,92 | 27,92 | 23,92 | 15,92 | 13,27 | ||
| Prix | 19,92 | ||||||
| Rossetto | 23,84 | 15,84 | 20,00 | ||||
| Eurospar | 19,92 | 15,12 | 23,92 | 18,32 | 21,93 | ||
| Spazio Conad | 19,96 | 21,94 | 15,92 | 15,54 | 18,60 | ||
| Lidl | 19,92 | 16,07 | 15,92 |
19 Brands
In the points of sale visited, a total of 19 berry brands were present. The brand with the highest average prices was Gandolfo. The brand with the lowest average prices for blueberries was Il Dominio, followed by Camposol.
Packaging
84% of the references detected in the blueberry product are sold in packages with a net weight of 125 grams.
