Harvest began very early, the acceleration was 2-3 weeks. The season in Spain lasted a long time - in May the temperatures on the Iberian Peninsula were a few degrees lower than in Poland and this resulted in the prolongation of their season. It came to the situation that the Polish blueberry had to compete with the Spanish. In addition, planting from Serbia, Romania comes into bearing fruit. Few Polish export companies sent fruit in June, only those who had previously risked and contracted transports for 26 or even 25 weeks of the year could afford to ship. A lot of supply, plus a smaller export caused that the first prices were not high, and in addition quickly fell to the lowest level for several years.

Record blueberry prices in August

While July was not good for growers, at the beginning of August a lot of plantations were virtually empty and there was a rapid increase in prices. At the beginning of August it was not yet possible to talk about good prices, but from mid-August, the prices were really satisfactory. Let me be wrong, but it seems to me that such good prices as in the 33 or 34 weeks will never be again.

Why did this happen?

The top of the harvest of the not too dense Bluecrop was a rainy week, the best fruits of this variety were unsuitable for storage. Then high temperatures accelerated maturation. The 2017 season was surely affected by such a rapid price increase, where much of the stored fruit did not meet export standards and had to be sold on the domestic market at low prices.

In addition, terrible heat prevailed in Western Europe, the territories of the terrible drought in the Netherlands and western Germany, and these countries were also harvested earlier.

I am afraid that 2019 will be completely different, if the beginning of the season comes out as normal, everything will move by at least 2 weeks, for which you should expect a better yield of Bluecrop or a longer season. Definitely more blueberries can go to the cold store, so you have to count on the end of August will not be good. September is unfortunately supplied from Peru, which may soon exceed 100,000 tons, become the largest exporter of blueberries in the world and take away this title of Chile.

Finally, let me add that if I were to define this season in one word, it would be a word - predictable.