Blueberries in Romania: past, present and future perspective

The first blueberry research plantation in Romania was established in 1968. In the next two decades, between 1975 and 1989, more than 250 additional ha have been planted. After 1989, due to the property regime change, most of the blueberry lands have been abandoned or cut down, and the total surface area became less than 30 ha. Since 2004, the attention and interest in setting up new blueberry orchards steadily increased. In 2012, blueberry plantations occupied 280 ha, and in 2015 exceeded 650 ha. The fast upward trend of blueberry establishment in Romania is motivated by the growing market demand for fresh fruit consumption and the profit incentive compared with other fruit produced in the orchards. With the beginning of the new National Rural Development Programme 2014-2020 and allocation of European funds for the Fruit Growing sector within the programme, the blueberry crop outlook became even better. We expect the number of blueberry orchards in the upcoming years to grow and the total production to increase as fast as investments materialize.