The blueberry situation in Argentina, with its main production in the Concordia region, is witnessing a real crisis. This crisis is the result of a lack of policies that boost the growth of the sector for international competition.

Source: Fresh Plaza

This subject was addressed in depth by Matías Longoni, with a note in Bichos de Campo entitled “Argentina ruins even its best illusions: antagonizes the blueberry sector, an activity that attracted many investments, and later stumbled upon reality.”

Alejandro Pannunzio, a renowned irrigation specialist – a professor at the UBA – who also produces this fruit in the Concordia area, in Entre Ríos, said that in Argentina there are 2.300 hectares planted with blueberries, when ten years ago there were 4.800 hectares. “That is why in the 2020 season it exported just over 10,5 million kilos, when years ago it had exported twice as much, 20 million kilos of blueberries.”

The numbers could have been very different if Argentina had followed the same path as this South American region, which has specialized in the production of blueberries to export counter-seasonally, to the markets of the Northern Hemisphere, especially the United States and the European Union. that they are good payers. The region grew from 51.700 hectares planted in 2009 to almost 100 in 2019.

According to blueberriesconsulting.com, Pannunzio calculated that if Argentina had followed the same evolution, the area planted with blueberries should be reaching 8.640 hectares. Now, it is only a quarter of that, because of the regression.