Blueberries reach the bottom as strawberries volumes decrease alongside raspberries and blackberries

Photo by Markus Spiske on Pexels.com

Blueberries—Volume dropped by 27% this week compared to the prior week, and there is generally very little volume around. Quality across the board is “okay” at best, but this is what we expect for this time of year.

Strawberries – Volume into retail dropped by 10% vs the prior week. The challenging harvesting conditions over the last few weeks have ensured that volumes will continue to decline. In VIC, it looks like it will be a good growing week with mid-max temps and cooler nights in the high single digits; this may see volume slow up a little from this region as this is the coolest week it has been all year. 

Stanthorpe has decent growing conditions this week, with only a wet day on Thursday forecasted with maximum temps in the low 20s and minimum temps floating around 10-12 degrees. Warmer growing conditions continue in southwest WA, with warmer days and cool nights. Historical averages at this time of year are around 23 degrees. However, we are looking at a +35-degree day on Saturday.

Raspberries—Volumes in VIC and Northern NSW continue to increase, and we saw a good jump in volume for the Coffs Coast region, which has settled down over the last few days. School is back in QLD and VIC, but NSW has started and will see lightened demand during the next two weeks. Raspberries have been getting a lot of shelf space, which will help with pull-through in stores, and despite extra volume coming on, we expect stability in prices. Blackberries—Production continues to drop slightly week on week. Quality across the board has

improved in the last week. Our charts show a big jump in volume compared to last year, but please note this is off a small base

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