Morocco’s blueberry boom still has room to run, with nearly 1,000 hectares of plantations yet to produce in 2025 and younger fields expected to push the crop almost 70pc higher by 2029.
Growers harvested 84,940 tonnes last year, an increase of 18.4pc, according to the latest International Blueberry Organization report cited by FreshPlaza. The rise came not from better yields but from more land coming into production.
Of the nearly 6,800 hectares planted with blueberries, around 5,800 hectares were producing. Those new productive fields added an estimated 14,940 tonnes to the harvest, enough to more than offset a slight drop in yields that cost around 1,740 tonnes.
Average yields stood at 14,645 kilograms per hectare.
It is that acreage coming of age that now sits behind the IBO’s outlook for 2029. As younger bushes mature, Morocco is expected to account for much of the additional blueberry supply coming from Southern Europe and North Africa.
And there has been no shortage of buyers for the fruit already being picked.
Fresh exports reached 82,590 tonnes in 2025, only slightly below total production. Spain alone took 43,110 tonnes and the UK another 20,180 tonnes, putting the two markets at around 77pc of Morocco’s shipments.
Not all of those berries necessarily ended their journey there. Spain and the UK also work as logistics and redistribution hubs, the IBO notes, moving part of the Moroccan crop onwards to other markets.
This year’s harvest, meanwhile, arrived in Europe later than usual.
Heavy rain and severe cold between November 2025 and January 2026 held picking back by around three weeks in the north and 10 days around Agadir. Ordinarily, such a delay would have meant lost ground for Moroccan growers. This time, competitors were having problems of their own.
Chile had a shorter season, while Spanish and Portuguese production was also late. With fewer blueberries reaching European shelves, Moroccan supplies tightened and average prices rose.
