Blueberries — The Continent's Fastest-Growing Berry Export
The blueberry, botanically Vaccinium corymbosum in its dominant highbush form, is a small round berry native to Asia, Scandinavia and North America, where early native peoples already recognised its health and medicinal value. For most of its commercial history, cultivation was confined to regions with the right natural chilling conditions. That changed as new varieties, climate control systems, shade nets and tunnels allowed production to spread to new parts of the world, and the arrival of low-chill varieties around 2010 is precisely what opened the door for warm-climate African production. The fruit is eaten fresh, but a substantial share of the global crop is processed into frozen, dried, juiced and extract form, with roughly 22 percent of the 2.15 million tonnes produced worldwide in 2024 going to processing rather than the fresh market.
