Frozen blueberry comes to the market as two genuinely different products. Cultivated blueberry, grown on plantations from named varieties, is larger, milder, more uniform in calibre and easier to specify. Wild blueberry, gathered from forest stands, is much smaller, darker in flesh as well as skin, considerably more intense in flavour and higher in the pigments that give it its colour. They are not substitutes for each other. A muffin formulated around cultivated fruit will look and taste different if wild fruit is dropped into it, and the calibre difference alone changes how the batter behaves. Decide which one the recipe needs before asking for a price, because the prices are not comparable.
Seasonality and availability
Cultivated blueberry is harvested from July into September depending on variety and region. Wild blueberry is gathered in July and August in a shorter and less predictable window that depends on the season in the forest regions. Both are frozen at harvest and drawn from cold store through the year. Wild fruit is the one to book early: the volume in any given year is what the forest yielded, there is no way to plant more of it, and a poor season is felt immediately in the price.
What the buyer checks at intake
- Type. Confirm the delivery is the type ordered, cultivated or wild. The difference is visible on a thawed sample.
- Calibre against the specification, on a sieved sample rather than by eye.
- Core temperature at minus eighteen degrees Celsius or colder, measured between cartons.
- Free-flowing behaviour and absence of clumps.
- Stems, leaves and unripe green fruit against the defect tolerance.
- Colour of the thawed flesh, which is the quickest way to tell the two types apart.
Related standards and routes
Road reefer through the western border crossings is the normal route to central and western Europe. Suppliers are usually certified to BRCGS or IFS Food. Organic product carries EU organic certification and the associated import documentation.
