The new berry retail monitor conducted on May 20, 2025, reveals a market in rebalancing phase.
While blueberry, raspberry, and blackberry prices show a downward trend with numerous promotions, red currants stand out for their high prices, mainly due to overseas production. The quality standards of blueberries—sourced from Spain, Morocco, and Italy—are generally good, as are those of raspberries and blackberries, thanks to improved rotation and lot freshness. However, red currants are experiencing a critical phase in terms of quality, precisely because of the high prices: the product shows signs of damage and mold, also indicating the end of the season.
The analysis also highlighted a fragmented market in terms of branding, with many brands available even within the same store, suggesting that lower prices encourage the entry of new players offering “first-price” products.
These are the main findings of the survey carried out today in the urban area of Piacenza (Italy), covering 18 stores from 18 retail chains belonging to 14 major supermarket groups.
Assortments were recorded for the following chains: Aldi, Basko, Conad Superstore, Coop, Dpiù, ECU, Esselunga, Eurospin, Galassia, Gulliver, Il Gigante, In's, Ipercoop, Italmark, Lidl, MD, Penny, Sigma.
Assortment
In the small fruit category, the surveyed stores offered between 1 and 8 SKUs, with an average of 3.7 SKUs per store.
Among the 18 stores with a small fruit assortment: 83% offered raspberries, 100% blueberries, 67% blackberries, 22% red currants, and 22% mixed berry packs (Tris).
Range breadth
11% of stores with small fruit assortment offered a single SKU; 39% had 2 or 3 SKUs, while the remaining 50% had 4 or more SKUs available.
Quality
Quality refers to the product’s health condition, assessed in terms of: absence of significant defects; healthy product but in suboptimal condition (not fresh, tired, wilted, dull, lacking bloom); presence of damaged fruits and juice; presence of spoiled fruits and mold.
The groups with the best quality were Basko, Coop, Eurospin, Gruppo PAM, Lidl, Rewe.
Retail prices
Raspberries (17 entries): min. €7.92/kg, max. €27.60/kg, average €17.56/kg
Blueberries (37 entries): min. €7.78/kg, max. €27.04/kg, average €16.40/kg
Blackberries (12 entries): min. €12.40/kg, max. €27.60/kg, average €18.85/kg
Red currants (4 entries): min. €23.84/kg, max. €31.92/kg, average €27.86/kg
Tris (4 entries): min. €23.27/kg, max. €26.60/kg, average €25.40/kg
Overall (74 entries): min. €7.78/kg, max. €31.92/kg, average €18.17/kg.
Brands
A total of 26 small fruit brands were identified across the visited stores.
The brand with the highest average prices in the category was Naturama. The brand with the lowest average prices for blueberries was Southern Sun, followed by Hortifrut Emea.
Packaging
54% of the blueberry SKUs surveyed were sold in packs with a net weight of 125 grams.
| Retailer | Two-pack | Raspberries | Blueberries | Mix | Blackberries | Red currants | Three-pack | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sigma | 27,60 | 23,92 | 27,60 | 26,37 | ||||
| ECU | 23,92 | 23,92 | ||||||
| Gulliver | 19,92 | 18,32 | 26,60 | 21,61 | ||||
| Esselunga | 20,52 | 21,65 | 15,84 | 23,84 | 25,20 | 21,41 | ||
| Il Gigante | 19,84 | 18,50 | 23,20 | 15,04 | 26,53 | 20,62 | ||
| Conad Superstore | 19,92 | 15,92 | 13,86 | 24,90 | 23,84 | 23,84 | 20,38 | |
| Italmark | 17,45 | 7,92 | 15,20 | 15,92 | 31,92 | 23,27 | 18,61 | |
| Coop | 19,90 | 15,92 | 19,90 | 18,57 | ||||
| Penny | 19,92 | 14,94 | 19,92 | 18,26 | ||||
| Eurospin | 15,92 | 19,94 | 15,92 | 17,26 | ||||
| Aldi | 13,97 | 19,92 | 16,95 | |||||
| Ipercoop | 12,40 | 9,92 | 12,40 | 31,84 | 16,64 | |||
| Lidl | 12,97 | 19,92 | 16,44 | |||||
| In's | 15,92 | 11,96 | 19,92 | 15,93 | ||||
| MD | 15,92 | 15,92 | 15,92 | |||||
| Basko | 19,92 | 11,92 | 15,92 | |||||
| Dpiù | 15,60 | 15,60 | ||||||
| Galassia | 14,00 | 13,56 | 13,78 |
