Morocco tripled its blueberry export to Southern Asia over the past five years, jumping from 450 tons in 2019 to 1,500 tons in 2023, a volume increase of 3.3%, “East Fruit” said on Wednesday.
In the first four months of 2024, Moroccan exporters supplied approximately 1,300 tons of blueberries to the region, which is almost the equivalent of last year’s export total.
Hong Kong is Southeast Asia’s principal market for fresh blueberries, continuously ranking as one of the top 10 global importers, according to Yevhen Kuzin, Market Analyst at EastFruit
The principal importer, Hong Kong, did experience a dramatic drop in its fresh blueberry imports in 2022-2023, returning to the 2019 level of a little over 15,000 tons.
Other nations in the region import far less than Hong Kong, but are quickly growing their purchasing quantities.
The analyst added that from 2019 to 2023, Singapore and Malaysia boosted their blueberry imports by 50%, while Thailand more than quadrupled its imports.
Last year, Morocco’s blueberry exports to Southeast Asia broke records in 2023 with a whopping 1.4 thousand tons of fresh blueberries delivered to that region (except Vietnam), double its exports in 2022, the East Fruit wrote early January.
Hong Kong, Singapore, and Malaysia imported about 96% of Morocco’s blueberries destined for the region in 2023.
Exports of the berries generally take place during winter and at the beginning of spring, from February to May.
Southeast Asia is one of the world’s fastest-growing markets for fresh berry imports.