2024-07-26 12:24:25
Blueberries went up in price by one and a half or even two times
Blueberry season is coming to an end. About another week – and these berries will not be left in the forest.
Now they are asking 5-6 euros for a liter in the Alytus market. We don’t want to lower the price because there aren’t many blueberries in the forests this year. In the spring, their jam trees bloomed early, a late frost visited, which melted the blueberry crop.
This is also confirmed by the president of the Association of Lithuanian Forest Mushroom and Berry Entrepreneurs, V. Varėniškis: “Compared to last year, it costs one and a half or even two times more for entrepreneurs to buy blueberries this year. For example, last year their kilogram cost 1.2-1.3 euros, now it costs 2-2.5 or even 3 euros.”
According to his available data, in the year of average blueberry productivity in Lithuania, during their picking season, which lasts about a month, up to 3 thousand are sold. tons of blueberries, maybe only a third of this amount will be bought this year. V. Varanavičius emphasizes that this amount of blueberries sold during the season is together with the berries sold by the market and package dealers.
Most of them are bought by several companies involved in berry processing and freezing in the country.
But today, according to V. Varanavičius, the point is not the price of blueberries and not their harvest.
The old voters left for Eternity
“Blueberries, like other berries, are no longer available for picking. Yes, you understand correctly, their old voters have left for Eternity, and the young people don’t want to vote for them anymore, they don’t go to the forests very much. All of us can notice this,” says the head of the Association of Lithuanian Forest Mushroom and Berry Entrepreneurs.
V. Varanavičius emphasizes that the situation is the same with forest berry pickers in Poland – and there are no longer any of them: “For example, in Germany, in general, almost no one picks berries and mushrooms in the forests. People live richly and buy the kind of goods that are sold in supermarkets. European industrialists have already found a variety of additives that replace real, expensive berries. In the opinion of them, we, the buyers, the further it goes, the more it will become an unaffordable product for many.”
When the president of the Association of Lithuanian forest mushroom and berry entrepreneurs asked whether it is possible to buy Belarusian blueberries or mushrooms brought to us in the markets as before, his answer was categorical: “Fresh – certainly not. But companies can import frozen, even the same blueberries or mushrooms.”
About endangered squirrel eaters
According to V. Varanavičius, buyers pay 4-4.5 euros for a kilogram of squirrels this year, their prices have not increased compared to last year. Only they, as forest berry pickers, are decreasing for the same reason.
In the field of buying and processing forest mushrooms, the head of the aforementioned association named another pain – the disappearing squirrels and other common mushroom eaters.
“Some time ago, our squirrels were very loved by the Germans and French, now there are few of those who loved them, they left the same place as the old berry pickers of our forests. And the tastes of young people have changed. We have a similar situation.
Fast food is better than mushrooms. Therefore, it is not surprising that the demand for mushrooms in Lithuania has shrunk by 80 percent compared to what it was ten years ago. And not only in Lithuania, but throughout Europe. It is not a commodity and no one is willing to pay high prices. The higher the price, the lower the demand,” shared the thoughts of the head of the Association of Lithuanian Forest Mushroom and Berry Entrepreneurs.
And one more thing he invited us not to forget in this place – currently there are about ten types of mushrooms grown on farms or trees, they can be grown almost all year round, and it is much less difficult to collect them. This also greatly reduces the number of regular forest mushroom eaters, and far from only in Lithuania.
2024-07-26 12:24:25