Luis Maestre, one of the twenty neighbours of this mountain town who ventured to plant blueberries a couple of years ago, is feeling uncertain about the adventure of planting blueberries in the area because of the direction taken by this year’s harvest.

 

Maestre explains that the heat registered since the week after Easter has caused the fruit to ripen very quickly, leading to market saturation and falling prices. While last year an average of around 4.5 or 5 €/kilo was reached, this year prices have remained around 3 €/kilo.

 

The blueberry harvest in Sierra de Huelva started in mid-May; the first weeks have been “average, but now the price already stands below 2 €/kilo,” which barely serves to cover production costs.

 

Luis Maestre has 2 hectares of land planted with about a thousand blueberry plants of the late Star variety.

 

The young grower, baker by trade, laments that prices do not match the fruit’s quality. Under these conditions, he fears he may have to finish the season early, before the end of June, when his plans were to be picking fruit until later this month or early July.

 

The revenue generated this season will basically all go to cover production costs, especially to pay the wages of the 30 labourers he hired for the campaign, and to recover the investment. This is his second campaign, in which he estimates he may harvest around 15,000 kilos of blueberries, twice as much as last year, when the trees were still very young.

 

The production is being marketed through two companies based in Huelva specialised in berries, one in Moguer and another in Lucena.