Giant blueberry lift industry New Zealand for $ 8 million over two years

A number of extra large berries blueberries will be ready for export this spring. They most likely will not be directly available to domestic consumers.

Giant blueberry larger than 2 dollar coins will be planted in New Zealand that will boost the industry to $ 57 million per year.

The company BerryCo from Tauranga (New Zealand), which acquired the rights to the cultivar of blueberry super size Eureka, bred in Australia, says that after two growing seasons it may have cost $ 8 million a year in exports.

This is based on trial shipment to Asia and the Middle East last year. In Singapore Panetti 200 grams sold $ 12.95 each.

Currently, the company is looking for producers willing to buy a license for the grade, although she's not ready to disclose the price.

Director BerryCo Carwyn Williams (Carwyn Williams) said that the first 40 hectares will be planted with Eureka "in the next couple of months" in the major blueberry regions of the Far North, Bay of Plenty, Waikato and Nelson.

First 200000 propagated plants will be delivered to licensed manufacturers this year, the first batch distributed for planting in March. The second phase of delivery will occur in spring 2017.

"Production is possible after the first year of planting, perhaps a small crop will be commercially available in 2017, while exports will be evaluated later this year."

Unlike most varieties of blueberries are grown in the warmer months, the Eureka variety are grown in tunnels and harvest during the period from August to October.

BerryCo is a joint venture of Bay of Plenty''s Southern Produce and Valleyfresh in Victoria, Australia. The company also has significant cooperation with Miro LP Ltd, recently established in cooperation between producers, Maori and investors.

Williams said that, controlling the intellectual property variety, BerryCo will not plant more acres than that assumed for the premium market.

He said New Zealand was in a good position, because there were not so many pests in comparison with Australia, such as Drosophila, and thus, manufacturers have access to a greater number of markets, including Japan and, eventually, Korea and China.

Last year, the Ministry of basic industries (Ministry for Primary Industries) has granted the application for the blueberries to give the "next priority" access to the markets of China and Korea.

Variety Eureka was opened as a random seedling by the Australian breeder bell Ridley (Ridley Bell) in 2008, by the natural crossing of two varieties, which unexpectedly resulted in a hybrid more standard size without using any genetic modification.

In New Zealand grow about 700 acres of blueberries, approximately 25 commercial producers and 50 of those who have this is not the main activity. According to the forecasts of the export volume can reach more than $ 60 million by 2022.

Anna Ustymenko.