June 2024 marked a historic milestone for the EU blueberry market as Georgia, a non-EU country, emerged as a significant new player. According to EastFruit analysts, Georgia has been consistently setting new records in blueberry production and export.
In 2024, Georgia achieved another export milestone. By the end of June, the country’s blueberry exports surpassed 3.9 thousand tons. More importantly, for the first time, Georgia delivered substantial quantities of blueberries to EU markets.
Specifically, in June 2024, Georgia exported 340 tons of fresh blueberries to Germany, 83 tons to Poland, and 50 tons to the Netherlands. Additionally, a notable shipment of 67 tons was sent to the UAE.
Read also: Georgia to export 500 tonnes of blueberries to EU and UK
“Georgia has an excellent market window for supplying blueberries to the EU,” says Andriy Yarmak, an economist at the investment department of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). “This window occurs at the end of the season in Spain and after the supply season from Morocco, when the volumes and quality of supplies from the southern EU regions decrease, and there is still over a month before the harvest begins in Poland. During this period, competition in the EU blueberry market is not very intense, and all alternative suppliers are quite distant and also non-EU members. Given the rapid growth in blueberry acreage and yields in Georgia, entering the EU market is a crucial step to ensure the sustainability of this business and reduce dependence on a single country.”
Investors continue to actively expand blueberry acreage in Georgia, which is expected to drive high export growth rates in the coming years.
