Industry spotlight: What’s shaping the blueberry market?

2025 market season and what lies ahead

The 2025 season has confirmed the strength of Fall Creek®’s open catalogue varieties as a benchmark in the industry. From early to late, varieties such as Blue Ribbon, Top Shelf, Valor® ‘ZF08-070’, Cargo and Last Call have become key points of reference. A decade since their first commercial trials in 2015, growers have refined their field management and the market continues to recognise the improved fruit quality, driving demand and encouraging renewal.

While the open catalogue now sets the standard, the Fall Creek® Collection is where innovation takes root. ArabellaBlue® 'FC14-062' and LoretoBlue™ 'FC11-118' are performing exceptionally well and are already poised to become the next standard. Behind them, a strong pipeline of new selections is in advanced trials with key growers in strategic territories.

We also see promising momentum in emerging regions. In Turkey, interest in blueberries is growing rapidly. Without the legacy of older genetics, new projects are planting ArabellaBlue® 'FC14-062', LoretoBlue™ 'FC11-118', Blue Ribbon and Valor® ‘ZF08-070’ from the outset, bringing a higher quality offer to the market and creating a strong competitive advantage.

The future is exciting, and it’s being shaped by growers who are ready to lead with innovation.
 

Weather watch: overview of the 2025 season

The 2025 blueberry season has, overall, been positive. Demand across markets remained strong, and in some instances, supply struggled to keep pace with market needs.

However, certain regions, particularly Poland, Romania and Turkey, faced challenges due to a severe late frost. Several nights of sub-zero temperatures during flowering led to reduced yields and fruit set issues. Despite these setbacks, blueberries proved more resilient than other crops such as cherries, peaches and apricots, which experienced near-total losses in some areas.

Southern Europe faced a different challenge: a heatwave at the end of June and into early July, with temperatures climbing to 40°C. This period impacted the quality of early-season fruit, especially where harvest timing was affected by labour shortages, resulting in some overripe fruit.

Meanwhile, the late season in northern Europe extended smoothly through to the end of September. The transition from northern hemisphere production to early Peruvian supply was well aligned, with minimal overlap issues.
As we move into winter, plants are entering dormancy. Many are already showing strong flower bud development, setting the stage for a promising 2026 crop.
 

Breeding focus: shaping the future of blueberry production

Breeding for what matters: efficiency, quality and the future

At Fall Creek®, our breeding programme is shaped by the real needs of growers. While key features like yield, flavour, berry size, crunch and plant structure remain essential, we’re seeing increasing interest across Europe in two important areas: harvest concentration and mechanical harvest suitability.

Harvest concentration, the proportion of fruit that can be picked in a single pass, can help reduce labour costs and improve efficiency. At the same time, successful mechanical harvesting relies on varieties with strong plant architecture and firm, resilient fruit.

Many of our recent varieties have been developed with these goals in mind. One variety, now in final-stage evaluation, shows potential for up to 90% of its crop to be harvested in a single pass. Several others are progressing steadily through our development pipeline. As always, final selection is based on performance across all key features.

Ultimately, a variety’s value lies in its ability to deliver strong yields at a sustainable cost, because in commercial production, the numbers always matter.

Join us at Fruit Logistica 2026, where we’ll showcase these and other exceptional new High Chill varieties and share insights from our ongoing trials.

Our breeding programme video shares more about our approach and what lies ahead: watch now.