Argentina’s Early Crop has seen a significant increase in its blueberry exports during the 2014 season. In just two years the Tucumán-based company has become a major player in Argentina’s blueberry export sector, shipping 1,400 tonnes of berries last season –an 80 per cent increase on 2013’s total.
This year company is planting an additional 50ha to add to its existing 200ha of production, in addition to which it will continue to renovate existing farms.
“We estimate that our output will reach 2,000 tonnes of fresh blueberries for the 2015 season, in addition to which we plan to market 800 tonnes of frozen berries,” says Federico Bayá. “Around 30 per cent of our output is destined for Europe where we have signed a number of new strategic alliances, mainly in the UK.”
Bayá sees plenty of room for further growth in the European market. “Europe sources around 5,000 tonnes of blueberries from Argentina a year, of which only 10 per cent arrives by sea,” he notes. “Increasing our volume of sea-freighted shipments will reduce our costs and enable us to become more competitive.”
