EastFruit analysts draw attention to an interesting and rather suspicious trend of a sharp increase in exports of Ukrainian blueberries to Georgia in 2023. The fact is that Georgia itself is rapidly increasing blueberry exports, and once again updated export records this year, increasing it four times compared to the previous year.
However, at the same time, Georgia has imported 381 tons of blueberries from Ukraine during the season, taking third place among the largest importers of Ukrainian blueberries. Only Poland and the Netherlands have imported more blueberries from Ukraine. Georgia also bought more Ukraine’s blueberries than such large buyers as Germany and the UK.
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Interestingly, blueberries were exported from Ukraine to Georgia in July and August 2023. In Georgia, the blueberry harvesting season ended in early July, and the sales of local blueberries ended in mid-July 2023. At the same time, Georgia continued to actively export blueberries in July and August. Almost the entire volume of blueberries from Georgia was exported to the Russian market. Imports of fresh blueberries to Georgia at the same time was carried out almost exclusively from Ukraine.
Perhaps Georgian supermarket chains simply wanted to extend the blueberry consumption season in Georgia by importing from Ukraine? It is quite possible. Moreover, prices for blueberries in Ukraine were relatively low.
However, for some reason imports of blueberries outside of Ukraine’s traditional season were almost non-existent. Thus, it cannot be ruled out that Georgian traders took advantage of the established sales channels and continued to supply blueberries to the Russian market after their own berries ran out, replacing them with imported blueberries from Ukraine.
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