For modern people who pursue a healthy life, blueberries are no longer an unfamiliar ingredient. However, for Chinese consumers, the opportunity to actually taste fresh, high-quality blueberries is rare. Because for a long time, the Chinese blueberry market has been monopolized by major exporters such as Chile, Peru, and the United States, and the price has remained high.
But just recently, a report from Red Star News sparked concern that China had finally opened its doors to Serbia, Europe's largest producer of blueberries. Not surprisingly, fresh Serbian blueberries will soon appear on the Chinese market.
After stuffing it, I want to "do a big job"
For Serbian businesses and farmers, the Chinese market is an attractive piece of "fat". Because in Europe, although Serbia is already a big country in the blueberry industry, the market has basically been divided by other producing regions, and it is not easy to further increase sales.
Fortunately, blueberry cultivation in Serbia is very modern, and the production efficiency and quality are very good. There are more than 2,500 hectares of orchards in the country, with a high degree of mechanization, with an annual output of more than 6,500 tons, and it is expected to exceed 10,000 tons in the next few years.
In contrast, China's annual demand for blueberries has exceeded 60,000 tons, but its self-sufficiency rate is only about 25%. This leaves plenty of room for Serbian blueberries to enter the Chinese market.
It is reported that some local companies and plantations in Serbia have begun to prepare for this year's export season. For example, Srbovoće, the country's largest fruit exporter, is stepping up to expand its production capacity; Another example is Sanga, the founder of Pureberry, a Serbian who began to introduce advanced American agricultural technology to China more than a decade ago and is ready to do a big job.
Intensifying competition among local leaders to seize the "C position"
The entry of Serbian blueberries into China also means that China's local blueberry market will face a desperate battle.
For a long time, China's blueberry industry has been dominated by a handful of leading companies. For example, Qingdao Lulu, COFCO Fuhai, Linuo Group, etc., they have obvious advantages in planting base location, technology investment, market channels, etc., and basically occupy the vast majority of the market share.
Taking Lulu as an example, the company currently has more than 5,000 acres of blueberry planting bases in Yunnan, Sichuan and other places, and has won a certain market influence through its series of blueberry products.
However, at the same time, local blueberry planting enterprises in mainland China are also facing some difficulties, such as the continuous rise in labor costs and serious product homogeneity. In addition, the large-scale planting technology has yet to be perfected, and the sales of agricultural products of most growers are still relatively passive. In the past period, the price of blueberries has fallen off a cliff.
Serbia is already an established exporter of blueberries, and the quality control of its products may be more assured, and the price war may further intensify. Therefore, it gave birth to the thinking of domestic leading enterprises: should we increase investment and improve the scientific and technological content to ensure the dominance of the blueberry track in the future?
Consumers will ultimately be the biggest winners
The entry of Serbian blueberries into China may represent a signal that China is opening up to the influx and competition of high-quality agricultural products from around the world.
Obviously, with the continuous growth of the middle class, consumption upgrading is becoming an irreversible trend. As a fruit with high nutritional value, blueberries are favored by more and more consumers. Therefore, the previous situation of "scarcity leading to premium" will inevitably be broken by supply-side structural reforms.
Next, there will be three forces intertwined in China's blueberry market: first, the impact of product structure brought by foreign "foreign varieties" such as Serbia; the second is the self-increase of domestic blueberry leaders in terms of capacity expansion and quality control requirements; The third is the fierce counterattack from Chile, Peru and other traditional export countries.
Any change in force will trigger a big shock in the entire industry. Competition will bring prices back to a rational range, product quality will continue to be optimized, and supply will show a diversified pattern. In the end, the benefits will be the entire Chinese market and consumers.
No one can stop the development of a sunrise industry, but how to win the initiative and take the lead in the reshuffle stage is a proposition that needs to be considered. Experts predict that in the next two or three years, we may witness a complete change in the pattern of China's blueberry market.