The production of blueberries in Serbia has expanded considerably in recent years, with an area of around 2,500 hectares, according to Julka Toskic, managing director of the AgroBrand marketing agency.
The new generation of Serbian producers of blueberries are using cutting-edge technology, he says, leading to improvements in grading, sorting and packing, while farm sizes are increasing. As the young orchards mature and reach full capacity, Serbian exports of fresh blueberries are growing rapidly, and new state-of-the-art cold stores and distribution centres are being set up across the country.
"Some of Serbia's most successful exporters of blueberries fresh are members of the recently created platform, Serbia Does Fruit," says Toskic. "The platform was founded with the aim of promoting the Serbian fruit industry internationally and is an effective link between advanced and certified domestic suppliers and international buyers."
The season has started well for blueberriesproducers, as blueberries is harvested in Serbia at least two weeks earlier than many of its competitors, says Toskic. In June alone, almost 1,700 tonnes of blueberries were exported to a dozen export markets, including the Netherlands, Germany, the UK and Russia.
"Not only have we increased our plantations at blueberries, but we have also increased cooperation with individual producers," says Ana Bosnjak, general manager of Agro Bel System. Although the season is still ongoing, Agro Bel System is already in negotiations with buyers from Scandinavia for the 2022 season. "We have increased the amount and type of packaging in which we export blueberries," says Bosnjak, "and for the next season we will also increase the current blueberries warehouse and sorting capacities."
"This has been a great season for our company," adds Sladjana Vukovic, director of Srbovoce, "during which we have achieved 150 tonnes of exports of blueberries, which is three times more than last season. Our total production was exported to the British market and we already have a large number of requests from new British customers for next season. Next year, in addition to blueberries in bulk, we are also preparing small packs of blueberries according to our customers' requests."
"This year, in addition to Germany, the Netherlands and Russia, our blueberries also went to Dubai," says Goran Stajic, director of Berry 4 U. "We pay special attention to modernisation and the application of advanced technologies. The quality and preservation of product freshness and nutritional values are our first priority. Therefore, we have state-of-the-art WECO sorting equipment, a tailor-made cooling system, a packaging centre and a state-of-the-art warehouse."
Source: Fruitnet
