It’s been a bit earlier of this year’s Polish blueberry season, compared to the previous year, according to Sandra Stefaniak-Sygula who is co-owner of Polish Berrytrade, a trader of berries. Berrytrade: “For us, we’ve had a great season.” Polish blueberry season began on the 24th day of June roughly two weeks before the start of 2023’s season. To date, it’s been an excellent season for us, in terms of high-quality; Polish blueberries, in particular types have lots of potential to be used in long distance transportation. We’re gradually expanding our business with Middle as well as Far Eastern countries, thanks to this fact. This is the market we are targeting this time of year and also Germany.”
According to Stefaniak-Sygula blueberries were affected by the weather during the last few months. “The temperatures did have some impact on blueberries for this particular year. The spring frosts were not the only thing to be affected as well as the intensities of temperature fluctuations during season in general. This negative impact was due to a lower measurement of the Duke varieties on a few plantations which can be seen in a small degree in the Liberty type.”
Stefaniak-Sygula says there’s a strong interest in their product and has put their latest investments up to the maximum level “”We have invested massively in the last 12 months. We relocated to a more modern building with more than 3000 square metres of cooling space, and also bought two new AI-enabled Tomra Kato 260 optical sorters to sort blueberries. These machines have the capability to sort more than fifty tons of blueberries every each day. The demand currently in Polish blueberries is extremely high. There are more requests than we can handle despite the fact we relocated to a larger plant and we are currently developing machines that have more capacity for packing. Demand this time of year is very high, not just from our clients from Germany or in the Middle East, but also local.”
It’s not yet too late to determine how much the entire volume are going to be, she declares. “I believe we’ll find out how the volume has been shaped this year in October after the Polish blueberry season is complete. At present, some farmers expect record-breaking harvests for this time of year. On opposite, certain growers must deal with 30-45% less fruit as they did in the past. It’s not clear how the final outcome will be until the moment.”
The reputation of Polish blueberries has been in the right place and Stefaniak-Sygula is of the opinion “I want to maintain the same relationship with our customers, and make sure they’re happy with the high good quality and quality of Polish blueberries. There is currently an upward trend as Polish blueberries are perceived to be the source of high top quality blueberries, in huge quantities as well as a fantastic source of high-quality blueberries that meet expectations of sophisticated customers” she says.
More details:
Sandra Stefaniak-Sygula
Berrytrade
Tel: +48 692 640 720
Email: [email protected]
www.berry-trade.com