China will become the world's largest market for blueberries
The blueberry is, at present, the second great berry of the world behind the strawberry. The president of the China Blueberry Association and a professor at the Agricultural University of Jilin, Li Yadong, said during a presentation of the data analysis of the world production of blueberries that the total production of this berry in the world amounted to 23.600 million tons in 1995 to 66.400 tons in 2015.
Today, the blueberries that are on the market are mainly intended for fresh consumption, an 65% of the total volume. In terms of potential consumption, the supply of blueberries still does not meet the demand in the national and international markets. By country, the ten most important producers are the United States, Canada, Chile, China, Poland, Peru, Mexico, Spain, Argentina and Morocco. The total production of blueberries from these ten countries represents the 90% of the quantity produced worldwide.
The Chinese blueberry advances slowly towards its golden age
In 1983, Jilin Agricultural University took the initiative to import a high-quality blueberry variety from the United States. This variety underwent many years of regional experimentation until, in 1999, Professor Li Yadong examined it and approved the final selection of China's first high-quality blueberry variety, the “beautiful ascension”. In this way, he filled a blank page in the history of blueberry cultivation in China. In the past decade, China's blueberry industry has developed at an insane rate.
According to the most recent statistics, in 2017 the Chinese sector of the blueberry had already reached an area of 46.000 hectares and a production of 115.000 tons. The three provinces of China where blueberries were grown for the first time on a large scale, Shandong, Guizhou and Liaoning, are also the three provinces with more cultivated hectares and more production. Shandong occupies the leading position in surface and production, but Yunnan and Sichuan have recently become the provinces where the blueberry sector is moving faster.
China hopes to become the world's largest market for blueberries
The main factors that will limit the sector in the future are the global labor deficit and the damages caused by frost in blueberries in the northern hemisphere. In the next few years, China will develop at a rapid pace and hopes to become the world's largest market for blueberries. It has been predicted that, in 2025, the area devoted to the cultivation of this fruit in China will amount to 70.000 hectares and the production will reach the 400.000 tons, so a cranberry market valued at 40.000 million RMB will be created (6.147 million USD). At the same time, the stimulation of the key companies and the coordination of different industrial associations will create a fundamental pattern in the cranberry sector in which important growers and cooperatives (with an area of 7 to 33 hectares) will become the main producers.
Source: life.china.com.cn
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