The situation on the shelves of the Bologna retail market is quite varied in terms of origins, brands, quality and availability of berries. The reason is the seasonal transition, which leads to multiple origins and still limited volumes.
Blueberries come from Italy, Peru, Morocco, Spain and Chile; prices are stable. The origins of raspberries are Morocco, Spain, Portugal, Italy and Mexico, with very high prices. Blackberries come almost exclusively from Mexico, with prices that remain high.
Shelves are well stocked and quality standards are good, with fresh batches of product processed in recent days.
These are some of the findings from the Berries Observatory, which yesterday, March 31, carried out a survey in the urban area of Bologna.
Under the Two Towers and surrounding areas, 16 stores from 16 retail banners belonging to 11 groups of large-scale retail (GDO) were visited. The assortments of the following retail chains were recorded: Aldi, Alì, Carrefour Express, Carrefour Market, Conad Superstore, Coop, Despar, Esselunga, Eurospar, Eurospin, IN's, Ipercoop, Lidl, Pam, Pam Local, Sigma.
Assortment and range width
In the stores visited, there were from a minimum of one to a maximum of seven SKUs, with an average of 3.4 SKUs per store. Specifically: 69% raspberries; 94% blueberries; 75% blackberries; 31% red currants; 31% mixed packs.
Regarding range width, 13% of stores carry only one SKU; 37% carry 2 or 3 SKUs, while the remaining 50% carry 4 or more SKUs.
Quality
Quality refers to product condition, measured in terms of: absence of significant defects; product that is sound but not in ideal condition (not fresh, tired, shriveled, dull, without bloom); presence of damaged fruit and juice leakage; presence of spoiled fruit and mold.
The groups with the best quality were Aldi, Alì Supermercati, Conad, Despar Italia, Esselunga, Eurospin, Lidl, Sigma.
Selling prices
Raspberries (12 observations): min. €19.92/kg - max. €31.92/kg - average €28.66/kg
Blueberries (25 observations): min. €12.48/kg - max. €28.00/kg - average €20.03/kg
Blackberries (15 observations): min. €23.84/kg - max. €28.00/kg - average €25.26/kg
Red currants (6 observations): min. €22.32/kg - max. €31.92/kg - average €27.84/kg
Mixed packs (5 observations): min. €17.38/kg - max. €31.93/kg - average €26.89/kg
Overall total (63 observations): min. €12.48/kg - max. €31.93/kg - average €24.21/kg.
Brands
Across the stores visited, a total of 16 berry brands were recorded. The brand with the highest average prices in the category was Lovita. The brand with the lowest average prices for blueberries was Onubafruit, followed by Widmann.
Packaging
44% of the blueberry SKUs recorded are sold in packs with a net weight of 125 grams.
