J.O. Sims > What's New > Autumn 2020

Autumn 2020

Wild Blueberries, Prunes, Cranberries & apples

Canadian Wild Blueberries

This year’s Canadian Wild Blueberry crop is extremely low, with 3 out of the 4 main growing regions having a crop which is 35-40% of a normal year.
This is a result of frost in the spring during pollination, along with a very hot and dry July.

There is little to no carryover of stock from last season’s crop into this season, which has meant availability for the season is circa 60% down against a typical crop.

Availability for all customers is extremely tight, and prices are significantly higher than previous seasons. J. O. Sims are looking to source Cultivated and European Wild Blueberries as alternative options for our customers.

Prunes

It has been confirmed, now that the Northern Hemisphere harvest has been completed, that this year’s global production (157,000mt) is the lowest since 2004. As a comparison, the 2019 crop was 204,000mt.

Fortunately, due to large carryovers from the 2019 crop we do not anticipate major supply issues, but expect price increases throughout the season.

The majority of the crop available will be of large sizes. Smaller sized fruit will be high in demand but low in availability.

Cranberries

The 2020 crop is expected to be below average but 5% higher than last year’s crop. There will be little carryover from the 2019 crop, less than the carryover from 2018 into 2019.

This, along with a strong demand due to consumers looking for immunity boosting foods, will mean that prices are likely to increase for the coming season.

Apples

This season’s total Apple crop is similar in size to 2019`s crop volume, but the frosts in May along with variable weather in the summer has affected the quality of Idared.

This has meant there is less 1st + 2nd grade Idared available for this season.

The effect of this is anticipated issues during storage, and quicker deterioration of quality, therefore although pricing is currently similar to last year, this is expected to increase in Q1 and Q2 of next year.