According to EastFruit analysts, Russia increased blueberry imports in 2021 by 21% in volume. The volume of blueberry imports to Russia exceeded 10 000 tonnes for the first time and reached 10 700 tonnes.
As in 2020, Georgia increased blueberry exports to Russia faster than other supplying countries, thereby becoming one of the Top-5 largest suppliers of fresh blueberries to the Russian market in 2021 for the first time. Blueberry exports from Georgia to Russia increased by 37% or 230 tonnes over the year and reached 850 tonnes in 2021. Thus, the share of Georgia in the Russian blueberry market reached 8%. Two years ago it barely reached 2%.
Market participants believe that Georgia could have exported more blueberries in 2021, if not for the unexpected end of the season when Russia introduced new rules for the import of plant products. Many companies stopped exporting then, as they did not have reliable information about the new rules and they were afraid of incurring severe losses.
However, Georgia exported more blueberries to Russia in 2021 than Serbia, with which Georgia switched places in the ranking of the largest blueberry exporters to Russia. Serbia reduced exports by 39% at the end of the season.
Noteworthy, suppliers from Zimbabwe increased blueberry exports to Russia even faster than Georgia. Their supply volumes increased 3.3 times over the year, but so far remained relatively low – 115 tonnes.
The exporters of Peru remained the market leader, accounting for one third of Russian blueberry imports. Peru also remained the largest global exporter of blueberries. Morocco remained the second with 21% of all Russian imports.
