Last year, Serbia exported 68,000 tons of frozen raspberries, almost twice less compared to 2019. While export volume has been declining over the past four years by over 10% per year due to declining demand in the multi-year crisis, the export price has more than doubled in the same period, reaching $5.5 per kilogram. Among the European markets to which Serbia exports the most, we sell frozen raspberries the most expensively in Belgium and Great Britain, and the cheapest in Poland.
Raspberries have been traditionally produced in our country for more than a century, and in recent times, raspberry growers have traditionally protested literally every year, dissatisfied with the purchase price. The Association of Raspberry Growers of Serbia predicts that due to bad weather conditions, the quality of this year’s raspberries will be questionable, while the crop will be smaller by almost a third.
However, production, and especially exports, have been declining for a long time, warns the analysis of the Faculty of Agriculture in Novi Sad and the Belgrade Institute for Agricultural Economics.
Experts point out that one of the main advantages of raspberries is that a high income can be achieved from a small area. Raspberries are grown in Serbia on 22,000 hectares with an average yield of 5.4 tons per hectare. The production of raspberries in the period from 2018 to 2022 averaged more than 118,000 thousand tons, but recorded a decrease of 2.2% per year.
The decrease in production is due to negative changes in the climate, the unsatisfactory state of plantations and the quality of planting material, the lack of professional staff and seasonal labor, but also the uncontrolled application of plant protection products. Despite this, Serbia ranks fourth in the world in terms of production volume with a share of 13%, right behind Russia, Mexico and Poland.
Demand in Western Europe is down by a third
During the previous four years, Serbia exported an average of slightly more than 98,000 tons of frozen raspberries, with exports falling by over 10% per year. The largest export was achieved in 2019, when it exceeded 114,000 tons, while last year it fell to 68,000 tons. The reasons are in lower domestic production, but even more so in a marked drop in demand on foreign markets in conditions of high inflation. Food companies and retail chains state that frozen raspberry is significantly more expensive compared to frozen exotic fruits or various fruit mixes, and is therefore increasingly being replaced by cheaper foods.
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