The Dvipa enterprise, which grows organic garden strawberries, raspberries and red currants on 12 hectares in the Magdalinovskiy district of the Dnipropetrovsk region, planned to expand the range of asparagus and blackberries. Asparagus is the earliest crop to freeze, and blackberries are the most profitable.

This is reported by the magazine "Plantator".

“It would be ideal to add asparagus: it is the earliest for freezing, and one could also download a product washing line,” Bogdan Gnatiuk, agronomist of Dvipa LLC. - We even agreed with the suppliers of asparagus seedlings on the supply, but there was a quarantine - and all plans had to be put on hold. Next year we plan to still try to plant blackberries.

According to Bohdan Hnatiuk, this is an underestimated berry.

“For example, if you take the Chachanska Besterna variety, it is almost ideal for organic production, it is more productive than traditional varieties,” the agronomist said. - Blackberries are on average twice as productive as raspberries, it is realistic to get 10–12 t/ha from it. Therefore, even taking into account the cost per hectare, its cost is lower, it is easier to collect, so the collection fee is similar to the cost of harvesting strawberries. Industrial grades are not prickly, are grown up on wall-paper. Even if the price of blackberries is lower than raspberries, this is offset by higher yields.”

According to the specialist, this season ordinary non-organic blackberries were sold at 50–60 UAH/kg.

“However, wholesalers are not interested in a batch of several hundred kilograms, but with 20 tons of goods it is possible to negotiate exports and a completely different price,” said Bogdan Gnatiuk. – Frozen blackberries have a stable market when it comes to processing. Of the minuses is that it competes with wild plants that do not have an expense item for cultivation, which means that they are cheaper than berries grown on an industrial scale.”

AgroTimes