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Export Markets Continue to See Growth

In a presentation at the 2016 Oregon Blueberry Conference, Tom Payne, a marketing consultant with the U.S. Highbush Blueberry Council, reported the council is seeing results of their work to improve access and enhance sales in foreign markets.

“The key is we are in these markets day to day,” Payne said. “We’ve got people working on food processing, working on polybags and fresh. We’re in these markets and we are making things happen.

“The manufacturers in those markets know who we are,” Payne said, “and we have some good momentum and we’re going to keep that going.”

Payne said the council is concentrating on Asian markets, including Korea, Japan, China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, but also is working mega-markets with long-range potential, including Brazil, Russia, India and China. The BRIC countries, as they are known, account for one-third of the world’s population.

In-store fresh blueberry berry blast in India.

“We are also addressing Southeast Asia, the Middle East, North Africa and targeted European countries and Latin America,” he said.

“We work the whole value chain,” he added. “We don’t just work on fresh.”

Payne said the U.S. exported about $53 million of blueberries into East Asia in 2015 and he expects that to increase in 2016.

European sales, meanwhile, are expected to increase this year for the first time in many years, Payne said, going to around $8 million of highbush blueberries, including a lot of dried blueberries.

Payne characterized Latin America as “a tough market” with good potential.

“There are about $3.4 million worth of production going into Central and Latin America,” he said. “And there are some real gains to be made in places like Mexico, Costa Rica and Trinidad – areas with food processing industries where they are using blueberries.”

In the Middle East and Africa, Payne noted that diabetes is affecting their citizenry. “This is driving people to go into blueberries,” he said.

Australia and New Zealand also offer market potential, this year taking about $4.17 million worth of blueberries, including dried and frozen berries.

In Japan, U.S. frozen blueberry sales increased slightly this year with strong demand in food processing. Dried blueberries accounted for around 1.8 million of the total pounds of processed blueberries shipped from the U.S. to Japan in 2015. And, Payne noted, it takes 3.5 pounds of frozen blueberries to make one pound of dried blueberries. That puts the total poundage of the dried shipments at 6.3 million pounds.

USA Blueberry Exports to Non-Canada markets as of October 31, 2015, US Customs

Overall, Japan imported around 15 million pounds of blueberries from the U.S. in 2015, he said.
Fresh blueberry sales to Japan have slipped since the disasters of March 2011, Payne said. In the aftermath, the weakened Japanese currency has given the grocery chain buyers less buying power. “We have seen slippage of all fresh fruits from the U.S.A.,” Payne said. But, he added, “we have seen positive signs and less slippage in the past year,” particularly with blueberries.

“We have a full-court press going in Japan,” he said. “We have ‘beautiful blueberry’ branding. We’ve got early-season promotions. We’ve got web interactive magazine articles in women’s magazines.”

Payne characterized the Asian markets as extremely important. “They are grabbing a huge chunk of your berries.”

Korea has become what Payne characterized as “the new Japan.”

“It is ‘blueberry country,’” he said. “We currently have a duty disadvantage compared to another frozen blueberry supplier, but at the same time we are doing very well in food processing where our frozen blueberries are appreciated and valued.”

Last year, Korea imported 12.62 million pounds of U.S. highbush blueberries, continuing a trend of annual increases.

Blueberries in Japan's top women's magazine

Brazil is a market that USHBC previously never thought about because of its proximity to South American supplies, Payne said, but it is showing potential. “Almost half-a-million pounds of fresh, frozen and dried blueberries from the U.S. – all highbush – is going in there now,” he said. “We think we’re getting a foothold and it’s a market with a lot of potential to grow with the Brazilian ‘food as medicine’ culture, a culture similar to Korea.”

Russia is another market with big potential, he said. “They know all about blueberries and stores were always stocked with fresh and frozen.

“After the Crimean and Ukrainian disputes and difficulties we were discouraged by our U.S. government from operating in Russia,” Payne said. “But we’re going to get back there when we are given the okay.”

The industry moved approximately 619,000 pounds to India last year, including primarily dried blueberries, Payne said. “With more than a half-a-million pounds of dried blueberries shipped, it equates to more than 1.75 million pounds of frozen highbush blueberries shipped to this distant land,” he said. “India is a market that has grown from zero, and with a population of 1.3 billion and a rising middle class, this could lead to larger volumes in the future.”

The industry also moved about 7 million pounds of processed berries into China/Hong Kong last year. “The frozen and dried are doing quite well there,” Payne said. “The dried is almost all highbush and utilizes more than 3.5 million pounds of frozen blueberries to produce.”
China officially bans imports of fresh blueberries from the U.S., but, Payne said, fresh blueberries are regularly seen in China grocery stores.

Fresh blueberry imports from the U.S. also are currently restricted in Vietnam, Payne said, but, he said, “You will see fresh U.S. blueberries in Vietnamese markets in major cities. In some cases, importers are paying steep government import fees to import fresh blueberries to the grocery trade. We also think there is good potential here as well as the Philippines.

The United Arab Emirates, especially Dubai, is another emerging market showing some potential. Sales have gone from roughly zero to almost one million pounds in recent years, he said, with most of that in fresh. The rest of the Gulf countries, such as Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain and even Iran are all showing interest, too, he said.

“We think the Middle East could be an interesting market in the future,” Payne said.



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