BLUEBERRY fans rejoice, one of the most expensive fruits on the shelves is about to get more affordable, with this year’s crop producing more berries than people in Australia.
Perfect growing conditions in key blueberry growing regions have led to a record crop of around 4.8 million punnets, weighing more than 600 tonnes, which hit the market this week.
Blueberries at major supermarkets this week are going for around $2.50 per 125 gram punnet, down from around $3.50 in the first half of the year.
Berries Australia Executive Director Rachel Mackenzie said this season comes as a huge relief to growers and consumers of blueberries, after a severe frost wiped out a lot of the 2018 season’s crops.
Warm, dry sunny days and cool nights for our growers mean that the consumer will be spoilt for choice in relation to finding great value blueberries over the next few weeks.
“This year’s crop conditions have been more than ideal in growing the freshest and highest quality blueberries just in time for the warmer weather to hit.”
Blueberry fan Eva Van As spent her weekend picking from this season’s crop on Mt Nimmel Blueberry Farm in the Gold Coast Hinterland.
Eva’s mum Jessica Van As said the farm belongs to her sister-in-law, and that the four-year-old loves getting out and tasting the berries.
“She has an absolute ball, she has not stopped talking about it. It was a couple of days ago but she was loving them and we took some home with us so we’re still eating them,” she said.
Ms Van As said although she’s thrilled blueberries will be more affordable everyday Queenslanders.
“It’s a really good opportunity to open up the market and have them available for everyone,” she said.
“We’ve just made a straight up blueberry jam with ours.”
(AVERAGE MAJOR SUPERMARKET PRICE)
Blueberries — $2.50/125g
Strawberries — $7.20/kg
Avocados — $2 each
Imperial mandarins — $3.50/kg
Granny Smith apples – $4.90/kg