The Florence stop of the Berries Observatory took place on June 25, 2025 and provided a very dynamic and positive outlook for the category. We are in the peak of the Italian production season, with a wide availability of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, and red currants of national origin. This is clearly reflected in both the quality of the products and the competitiveness of prices.
Some batches of raspberries and blueberries still show a partial presence of imported products from Spain and Morocco.
The batches are fresh, and there is a growing availability of larger sales formats, a factor that further supports product turnover.
Overall, Florence confirms itself as a market attentive to quality, well-stocked, and responsive to the seasonality and origin of berries.
The Observatory visited 15 stores belonging to 14 banners from 9 large-scale retail groups. The assortment was surveyed in stores of the following banners: Carrefour Express, Carrefour Market, Conad City, Conad Superstore, Coop, Dpiù, Esselunga, Eurospin, IN's, Ipercoop, Lidl, Pam, PAM Local, Penny.
Assortment and range breadth
In the berries category, the visited stores offered from a minimum of one to a maximum of ten references, with an average of 4.6 references per store. Specifically, blueberries were present in 100% of stores, followed by raspberries in 73% of cases, blackberries in 67%, red currants in 33%, and berry mixes in 20% of stores.
20% of stores offering berries had only one reference available. 27% offered two or three references, while the remaining 53% displayed four or more references.
Quality
Quality refers to the health of the product, measured by: absence of major defects; healthy product in less-than-ideal condition (not fresh, tired-looking, shriveled, dull, without bloom); presence of damaged fruits and juice; presence of spoiled fruits and mold.
The groups with the best quality results were Conad, Coop, Rewe, and Selex.
Retail prices
Raspberries (19 entries): min. €11.88/kg, max. €29.60/kg, average €20.43/kg.
Blueberries (36 entries): min. €7.98/kg, max. €30/kg, average €17.14/kg.
Blackberries (16 entries): min. €11.88/kg, max. €21.60/kg, average €17.12/kg.
Red currants (5 entries): min. €15.84/kg, max. €29.44/kg, average €24.48/kg.
Berry mixes (3 entries): min. €17.38/kg, max. €23.20/kg, average €19.32/kg.
Total overall (79 entries): min. €7.98/kg, max. €30/kg, average €18.47/kg.
Brands
A total of 25 berry brands were present in the surveyed stores. The brand with the highest average prices was Vivi Verde Coop. The brand with the lowest average prices for blueberries was Trifoglio, followed by Sanlucar.
Packaging
39% of the blueberry references recorded were sold in packages with a net weight of 125g.
