“Although BerryTrade was founded with the idea of focusing on exports of Polish blueberries, fate determined that the company would also start importing blueberries from other origins into Poland”, says Sandra Stefaniak-Syguła, co-founder of Polish berry trader BerryTrade: “We founded Berrytrade in the spring of 2021 and had our hands full during the summer months as exporters of Polish blueberries, mainly within the European Union. But in October, it turned out that exports wouldn’t be our only form of business. At Fruit Attraction, we received even more inquiries about the possibility of selling blueberries to Poland than about blueberries produced in our country. We were honestly surprised by the hype surrounding Poland. It turned out that we had perfectly captured the market trend and, right after returning home, we began offering imported blueberries to Polish supermarket chains.”

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“Berrytrade currently supplies blueberries, strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, cranberries, and redcurrants to eight Polish supermarket chains”, Stefaniak-Syguła explains. “Our business covers the months from October to the end of June, when Polish berries are unavailable. Poles love eating fruit and vegetables, and even during periods of financial crisis, they spare no expense in this category. Our society is increasingly placing importance on a healthy lifestyle; more and more often, a basket of fruit is brought as a gift to family or friends’ gatherings, rather than sweets. Campaigns appear to promote fruit consumption in hospitals and schools as well. The increasing premiumization of blueberries is also becoming increasingly visible. On store shelves, including discount stores, consumers can choose between standard fruit or special premium varieties, packaged in eye-catching packaging.”

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It turned out that entering the Polish market wouldn’t be the only challenge for Berrytrade: “We operate two distinct channels with our partners from countries like Peru, Chile, Spain, and Morocco. Some of them sell us their fruit, which we then introduce to the Polish market under our own brand, ‘Owocowa uczta’. However, there are large production groups with their own sales departments in Europe, and they are more interested in our packaging services, because they already have direct relationships with Polish supermarket chains,” Stefaniak-Syguła states.

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Berrytrade’s sorting facility is located near Warsaw, and has all the modern solutions one could require, Stefaniak-Syguła emphasizes. “Our 3,000m² refrigerated facility houses, among other things, two modern Tomra KATO 260 optical blueberry sorters with LUCAi™ technology, weighters from the American company A&B, and heat sealers, all proven and recognized top-of-the-line technology, the same as in packing facilities in countries like the Netherlands and Germany. In addition, 60 stations for manual packers are crucial to our operation.”

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“On the one hand, manual stations are useful for the final inspection of raspberry, blackberry, and strawberry packages. But beyond that, something unimaginable in Western Europe is still profitable in Poland: hand-sorting blueberries. Our labor costs are also rising year by year, but they are still much lower than in the Netherlands or Germany. Taking advantage of this, we’re probably one of the largest companies in Europe helping manage fruit that isn’t suitable for automatic packaging or has been rejected,” Stefaniak-Syguła says. “There are many packing plants in Europe that can pack practically perfect fruit well, but when it comes to processing defective fruit, it needs experts. I don’t hesitate to use the word experts, because our entire team puts a lot of effort and heart into properly allocating this type of fruit to the market. This is why we’re asked for such service by global giants in the berry business.”

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“We were delighted to hear from our partners that we are the most qualified berry packing plant they know of in this part of Europe. Indeed, our location provides an excellent base for conquering the markets of Central and Eastern Europe. Exporters from around the world are increasingly interested in markets such as Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, the Baltic States, Ukraine, and Belarus. A great convenience for our clients is that we organize groupage and full truckload shipments ourselves. We only need to be informed about the location, quantity, and quality issues of the fruits, and from that point on, we completely relieve our clients of the burden.”

“Therefore, we handle the transport, quality control of each batch of fruit in our warehouse, sorting and selling the fruit to the right customer. Over 37 million people live in Poland, and statistics show that we eat significantly more berries than other Europeans. Companies that entrust their fruit to us can be sure that every kilogram will find a suitable customer and that we will pay a fair price for every kilogram,” Stefaniak-Syguła concludes.

For more information:
Sandra Stefaniak-Syguła
Berrytrade
Tel: +48 692 640 720
Email: [email protected]
www.berry-trade.com