The blueberries situation is quite varied, with different origins including Italy, Spain, Morocco, Chile, and Peru. This indicates a limited availability of the product and quality issues across all production areas.
Raspberries and redcurrants remain very expensive. There is a greater availability of raspberries, but the quality has been affected by unfavorable weather in the main producing countries (Morocco and Spain). As for blackberries, early production is coming from Portugal, but the Mexican origin still dominates. The European season has not yet started.
This snapshot was taken by the berries Observatory, held yesterday, April 1, 2025, in the urban area of Bologna, covering 19 stores from 19 retailers belonging to 12 major retail groups.
The product assortments were surveyed in the following retailers: Aldi, Alì, Carrefour, Carrefour Express, Carrefour Market, Conad City, Conad Superstore, Coop, Despar, Dpiù, Esselunga, Eurospar, Eurospin, IN's, inCOOP, Ipercoop, Lidl, PAM, Sigma.
Assortment and Range Breadth
In the 20 stores visited, there were between 1 and 7 SKUs, with an average of 3.7 SKUs.
Specifically: 79% offered raspberries; 95% blueberries; 63% blackberries; 32% redcurrants and 32% mixed berry “Tris” packs.
Additionally, 16% of the stores had only one SKU for sale; 26% had 2 or 3 SKUs; while the remaining 58% offered 4 or more SKUs.
Quality
Quality refers to the condition of the product, measured in terms of: absence of significant defects; healthy but not ideal condition (not fresh, tired-looking, shriveled, dull, lacking bloom); presence of damaged fruit and juice; presence of rotten fruit and mold.
The groups with the best quality standards were Aldi, Alì Supermercati, Conad, Esselunga, Lidl, Selex, Sigma.
Retail Prices
Raspberries (18 entries): min. €19.92/kg, max. €31.84/kg, average €18.86/kg
Blueberries (32 entries): min. €9.16/kg, max. €31.92/kg, average €18.15/kg
Blackberries (14 entries): min. €15.92/kg, max. €31.04/kg, average €25.99/kg
Redcurrants (6 entries): min. €27.92/kg, max. €39.84/kg, average €33.73/kg
Tris (7 entries): min. €17.45/kg, max. €25.93/kg, average €23.56/kg
Overall total (77 entries): min. €9.16/kg, max. €39.84/kg, average €23.96/kg
Brands
In the 19 stores visited, berries from a total of 22 brands were present. The brand with the highest average prices in the category was Carrefour Bio.
The brand with the lowest average prices for blueberries was Onubafruit, followed by Lovita.
Packaging
Over half (56%) of the blueberry SKUs surveyed were sold in packages with a net weight of 125 grams.
Retailers by decreasing average price (€/kg) of berries category
| Retailer | Two-pack | Rasperries | Blueberries | Mix | Blackberries | Red currants | Three-pack | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| COOP | 31,84 | 31,04 | 31,44 | |||||
| Ipercoop | 31,84 | 17,92 | 31,04 | 31,84 | 28,16 | |||
| PAM | 31,92 | 19,98 | 27,92 | 31,92 | 27,93 | |||
| Carrefour | 22,40 | 27,04 | 24,59 | 27,60 | 39,84 | 25,93 | 27,90 | |
| Carrefour Express | 30,00 | 22,00 | 30,24 | 27,41 | ||||
| Eurospin | 27,92 | 23,92 | 27,92 | 27,92 | 23,27 | 26,19 | ||
| inCOOP | 18,85 | 31,84 | 25,35 | |||||
| Eurospar | 31,92 | 17,48 | 26,32 | 25,24 | ||||
| Esselunga | 28,24 | 22,96 | 23,84 | 23,20 | 24,56 | |||
| Alì | 31,92 | 17,29 | 23,92 | 24,38 | ||||
| Despar | 24,95 | 30,32 | 18,32 | 23,27 | 24,21 | |||
| Sigma | 23,92 | 23,92 | ||||||
| Conad Superstore | 23,76 | 12,96 | 25,87 | 19,76 | 39,04 | 21,66 | 23,84 | |
| Carrefour Market | 26,80 | 18,12 | 25,93 | 23,62 | ||||
| IN's | 23,92 | 15,92 | 19,92 | |||||
| Conad City | 23,76 | 14,16 | 19,76 | 19,23 | ||||
| Dpiù | 18,00 | 18,00 | ||||||
| Aldi | 15,44 | 15,92 | 15,68 | |||||
| Lidl | 9,16 | 9,16 |
