HOW DOES THE FRESH AND FROZEN RASPBERRY MARKET LOOK LIKE?
It is really interesting to see that when it comes to finding the world leader of certain fresh products, different countries are mentioned by different sources, and the same thing applies to the world raspberry production. The frozen foods market is lacking even more reliable statistics, but we can always look for the main exporters in order to get a better understanding of how the numbers look like.
After doing some research we found out that in 2015 the top rank of raspberry producers was the following: Russia (133.000 tons), Poland (127.055 tons), USA (100.775 tons), Serbia (96.078 tons) and Ukraine (30.300).
The ranks look quite different though, if we’re looking at the quantity and value exported worldwide. While Mexico is not in the world top 5 raspberry producing countries, it is listed as leader exporter with no less than 70.897 tons in 2015. USA follows with 42.477 tons of raspberry exports in 2015 and the list continues with Spain (with 34.868 tons), Poland and The Netherlands.
The top players in the fresh raspberry production worldwide seem to have a strong grip on the market and the ball is mostly passed between them, while other countries are trying to keep their place at the table and show their potential (UK, Spain, Hungary, Morocco, Belgium, France, Germany).
In Europe, Poland may reclaim the top spot in the global ranking if its harvest plays out at around 100,000 tons in 2016, while last year’s top performer – Serbia – could see its volumes drop to 85,000 tones – down from last year’s record-breaking 110,000 tones. USA is expected to seize the third spot in the ranking with a volume of 72,000 tones, followed by Mexico at 45,000 tones and Chile at 37,135 tonnes.
The ranking in the production of frozen raspberries worldwide is quite different than the one of the fresh raspberry market. Serbia is the absolute leader with a market share of 29,2%, followed by Chile (17,7%), Poland (16.4%), Belgium (5,7%) and The Netherlands (4.5%). Serbia is a strong competitor in the European market for frozen raspberries, where over 98% of the country’s frozen raspberry were destined to exports in 2010.
Mexico is trying hard to gain the trust of the EU market and expand outside the American borders with cheaper alternatives but it has a strong competitor in Chile. Chile though, seems to focus more and more on the Asian market and thus present their Latin American competitors with increasing opportunities. Mexico exports around 10.000 – 15.000 tons of frozen raspberries per year, but so far their products have been placed on the European markets mostly through brokers and other intermediaries.
Due to an increase by 45% in the demand of frozen raspberries in the EU combined with the low supply from Poland in 2015/2016 – China and Bosnia and Herzegovina made themselves noticed on the market by responding to this demand. The volume of imports from China increased to 6.5 thousand tonnes, while imports from Bosnia grew by 58% to 5.1 thousand tonnes.
The top consumers of raspberries are still the USA and the EU, but there is an increased interest from consumers in Japan, Australia, China, South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong and India, which means that new markets with great opportunities are being presented to raspberry exporters.
There is an increasing demand of frozen products and the frozen foods market is expected to grow more and more in the upcoming years. Clearly both the fresh and frozen raspberry production worldwide is also indicating towards this trend. It will be interesting to see how the dynamic of the game and players in this industry will change and what will that mean for both producers and end consumers.