In Brescia, there are more and more packs of Italian blueberries on the shelves — a clear sign that the northern Italian season is getting underway.
Prices are very competitive for blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries, with many pack formats especially for blueberries.
Quality standards are decent overall, except for Spanish blueberries, which are struggling due to the end of their season. Raspberries and blackberries are in good condition: raspberries mostly come from Morocco and Spain due to the low Italian supply, while blackberries are almost exclusively Italian.
This is a summary of the findings from the Small Fruit Observatory, which on June 11, 2025, focused on the urban area of Brescia. In particular, the Small Fruit Observatory in Brescia visited 19 stores from 18 banners belonging to 15 large-scale retail groups (GDO): Aldi, Carrefour Market, Conad, Conad Superstore, Coop, Dpiù, Esselunga, Eurospin, Famila Superstore, In’s, Ipercoop, Italmark, Lidl, MD, Migross, Penny, Prix, Rossetto.
Assortment: 4.1 SKUs per store
The berry category in the stores visited featured between a minimum of two and a maximum of eight SKUs, with an average of 4.1 SKUs per store.
95% of stores carried raspberries, 100% had blueberries, 74% offered blackberries, 21% had redcurrants, and 21% offered mixed berry packs (Tris).
Product Range Width
None of the stores visited sold only one SKU. 37% had two or three SKUs, while the remaining 63% offered four or more.
Quality
Quality refers to product condition, assessed by: absence of major defects; healthy but suboptimal products (e.g., not fresh, limp, shriveled, dull, lacking bloom); presence of damaged fruit and juice; presence of spoiled fruit and mold.
The groups with the best quality were Italmark, MD, Migross, Rossetto, and Selex.
Retail Prices
Raspberries (24 entries): min. €7.92/kg – max. €27.04/kg – average €16.90/kg
Blueberries (44 entries): min. €9.98/kg – max. €27.92/kg – average €15.53/kg
Blackberries (18 entries): min. €14.24/kg – max. €23.92/kg – average €18.38/kg
Redcurrants (4 entries): min. €20.64/kg – max. €31.92/kg – average €26.08/kg
Mixed berries – Tris (4 entries): min. €19.93/kg – max. €26.60/kg – average €23.90/kg
Overall (94 entries): min. €7.92/kg – max. €31.92/kg – average €17.23/kg.
Brands
A total of 30 brands were found among the small fruit products in the stores. The brand with the highest average prices was Vivi Verde Coop. The brand with the lowest average prices for blueberries was Hortifrut Emea, followed by Sanlucar.
Packaging
43% of the blueberry SKUs recorded were sold in net weight 125g packs.
| Retailer | Two-pack | Raspberries | Blueberries | Mix | Blackberries | Red currants | Three-pack | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Italmark | 24,95 | 7,92 | 18,93 | 15,92 | 31,92 | 26,60 | 21,04 | |
| Migross | 19,92 | 15,94 | 19,92 | 27,92 | 20,93 | |||
| Ipercoop | 19,95 | 21,94 | 19,95 | 20,61 | ||||
| Conad Superstore | 24,90 | 15,92 | 12,25 | 24,90 | 18,32 | 23,84 | 20,02 | |
| Rossetto | 19,90 | 18,24 | 17,44 | 19,84 | 20,64 | 23,87 | 19,99 | |
| Esselunga | 19,35 | 18,44 | 14,24 | 25,20 | 19,31 | |||
| Coop | 19,95 | 15,96 | 19,95 | 18,62 | ||||
| Carrefour Market | 18,24 | 18,24 | 18,24 | |||||
| Penny | 14,44 | 19,92 | 17,18 | |||||
| Aldi | 13,97 | 19,92 | 16,95 | |||||
| Prix | 15,92 | 14,94 | 19,93 | 16,93 | ||||
| Eurospin | 15,92 | 9,98 | 23,92 | 16,61 | ||||
| Lidl | 19,92 | 12,57 | 15,92 | 16,14 | ||||
| MD | 15,92 | 14,94 | 15,92 | 15,59 | ||||
| In's | 14,32 | 11,30 | 19,92 | 15,18 | ||||
| Conad | 15,92 | 12,88 | 14,40 | |||||
| Famila Superstore | 13,52 | 13,28 | 15,60 | 14,13 | ||||
| Dpiù | 14,00 | 14,00 | 14,00 |
