The shelf situation in Padua is marked by abundance, with a very high level of product availability, especially for blueberries, due to the production peak in Spain and the still substantial availability from Morocco. This has resulted in very low prices, highly aggressive promotions and a very strong presence of large formats, most of them 500-gram packs and, once again, offered at very, very attractive prices.
There are few brands, a sign of the strength of the best-known players in generating volumes and probably driving sales during promotional periods when availability is high.
As far as raspberries and blackberries are concerned, prices also remain low and competitive, due to increased production for these two references as well.
Moving on to origins, for blueberries, raspberries and blackberries there is Italian, Spanish and Moroccan product available. Redcurrants, on the other hand, are absent: Italian production is struggling to get started, while Chilean redcurrants are showing very high prices. Quality is very good and production lots are recent.
These are some of the findings from the Small Fruit Observatory, which yesterday, 26 May 2026, visited Padua, where 20 stores belonging to 20 retail banners and 14 groups in the large-scale retail trade were surveyed.
The retail banners were: Aldi, Alì, Alìper, Conad City, Conad Superstore, Coop, Eurospar, Eurospin, Famila, iN's, Iper Spar, Iperlando, Lidl, MD, Pam, Prix, Rossetto, Spak, Spazio Conad, Super A&O.
Assortment: 4.5 references per store
In the stores visited, there were from a minimum of two to a maximum of eight references, with an average of 4.5 references.
85% of stores stocked raspberries; 100% stocked blueberries; 80% stocked blackberries; 15% stocked redcurrants and 10% stocked Bis packs.
Range breadth: four or more references in 58% of stores
Let us now look at how these references are distributed. 20% of stores with small fruits in their assortment had two or three references; the remaining 80% had four or more references on sale.
Quality
Quality refers to the condition of the product, measured by the Observatory’s technicians in terms of: absence of significant defects; healthy product but not in ideal condition (not fresh, tired, shrivelled, dull, without bloom); presence of damaged fruit and juice; presence of spoiled fruit and mould.
The groups with the best quality were Aldi, Alì Supermercati, Conad, Coop, F.lli Lando, Gruppo PAM, Lidl, Prix.
Retail prices
Raspberries (23 observations): min. 11.92 euro/kg – max. 28.00 euro/kg – average 19.71 euro/kg
Blueberries (44 observations): min. 7.92 euro/kg – max. 29.90 euro/kg – average 15.75 euro/kg
Blackberries (18 observations): min. 14.24 euro/kg – max. 28.00 euro/kg – average 20.28 euro/kg
Redcurrants (4 observations): min. 28.00 euro/kg – max. 31.92 euro/kg – average 30.90 euro/kg
Bis packs (5 observations): min. 23.93 euro/kg – max. 31.93 euro/kg – average 26.73 euro/kg
Overall total (94 observations): min. 7.92 euro/kg – max. 31.93 euro/kg – average 18.82 euro/kg.
22 brands
In the stores visited, small fruits from a total of 22 brands were present. The brand with the highest average prices was Almaverde Bio. The brand with the lowest average prices for blueberries was Mondefruta, followed by Slomp.
Packaging
30% of the blueberry references surveyed were sold in packs with a net weight of 125 grams.
