Berries are small, soft, round fruits in various hues, primarily red, blue, or purple. Berries can be eaten raw or cooked. They have a sweet or sour flavor and are commonly found in desserts like preserves and jams.
Nutrients such as fiber, vitamins A, C, and E, and antioxidant polyphenols abound in these tasty fruits. Berries have a healthy nutritional profile because of this. Furthermore, berries may help prevent and reduce the symptoms of many chronic diseases when consumed regularly.
Summer isn’t complete without fresh berries. Fresh blueberries, decadent strawberries, and sweet-tart blackberries are hard to beat for their satisfying “pop.” Unfortunately, however, even a tiny box of supermarket raspberries costs a dime, and organic berries are even more expensive.
Put simply, picking and preserving berries (blackberries, blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, and strawberries, to name a few) are a hassle. Additionally, because berries are such a delicate crop, it requires special handling during transport and storage. As a result, the price you pay at the grocery store depends partly on whether your fruits were hand-picked or machine-picked—plus a tuneful of factors.
Why Are Berries So Expensive Right Now?
Blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, and blackberries have all seen significant price increases in the US market as a result. As well, demand for “superfoods” like berries has risen because of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in higher prices, even though the volume of food transported by the United States has remained the same.
- Comparing berries to other vegetable crops, they are minuscule. Because a machine can’t select them, hundreds of people must individually select them. Subsequently, berries picked by devices are more likely to be bruised or damaged, resulting in shorter shelf life and reduced freshness.
- Hence, hand-harvested berries are more expensive due to the higher cost of human labor, but some distributors believe that this price is worth paying for the significantly better freshness of your fruit.
- Berries have been bred for size and durability, but they are still delicate little creatures. The soft nature of most berries necessitates extreme care in handling and shipping. Unlike an apple or a watermelon, they do not have the genetic make-up to develop thick outer skin. Because of this, selling berries becomes more expensive.
- Berries have a little shelf life of only a few days because of their fragile properties. They can last for several hours if kept at room temperature. Within two to three days, they transform from vibrant beauties into moldy, blue-white goop.
Why Are Blueberries So Costly?
The health benefits of including blueberries in your daily diet are numerous, but the cost can mount quickly. Those of you who adore blueberries may want to know how to get a better deal on them. Blueberries are delectable—it doesn’t matter if you bake with them or eat them straight from the bag.
The cost of blueberries has skyrocketed over the last few years. So if you find that you eat a lot of blueberries, you might want to know why this berry is way too expensive.
- Because blueberries are so tiny, they must be picked by hand. Gathering all the blueberries from a single plant will take a long time for one worker. Due to the labor-intensive nature of harvesting by hand, the price of blueberries will rise as a result. The blueberries must be hand-picked on the farm, placed in buckets or containers, and then transported and stored all over the place.
- Blueberry prices fluctuate along with changes in the weather, such as more or less rain during a season. This factor complicates matters and raises the cost of blueberries as a result. In addition, when blueberries must be grown under more strict conditions, the price goes up.
- The problem with refrigerated products like blueberries and shipping them is that it’s costly to do both of those things. Once blueberries are picked, they need to be refrigerated to preserve their freshness. If a farmer were to pick the berries without putting them in refrigeration, they’d go bad even faster.
Why Do Raspberries Cost So Much?
For everything from yogurt toppings to homemade preserves, raspberries are the perfect fruit. They have the ideal balance of sweet and tart flavor, and their ruby red color makes them look like jewels. However, raspberries are an expensive delicacy. The high cost of raspberries does not solely stem from the fact that they must be imported.
- Raspberries are so expensive because of the resources used in the manufacturing process. Because small berries are more delicate than fruit found on trees, they must be carefully picked by hand rather than by machine. This component has a significant influence on the cost of labor.
- Due to their cool-climate origins, raspberries are seasonal fruit. In addition, they are frequently grown in a hydroponic or covered environment, which raises production prices.
- The high cost of raspberries is justified. These berries are unquestionably beneficial to your health, so investing in them is well worth it. Buy raspberries in bulk when they’re on sale if you don’t have the time or resources to grow your own. Just be judicious in how and when you purchase them to do so week after week.
Which Berry Is the Most Expensive?
Exotic fruit isn’t the only thing that can be more expensive. Farmers sometimes experiment with berry hybrids to see if they can improve the flavor of the fruits we enjoy. They can create eye-catching forms or exciting new tastes.
While berries are already expensive on their own, there are still variants of these fruits that can be painful to your budget. In short, strawberries are the most costly berry in the market. The price ranges from $7 per piece up to $438. However, note that strawberries are not botanically berries, but they are marketed as berries because they’re both sweet and tart. In addition, strawberries are related to avocados and eggplants, not blueberries or blackberries.
- Bijin-hime Strawberry ($438/piece). Japan is where you’ll find this magnificent fruit. This strawberry is not only the most expensive, but it is also the largest you’ll find anywhere. Unfortunately, only a few hundred of these enormous strawberries are harvested each season because they’re in such short supply.
- White Jewel ($10/piece). Strawberry White Jewels are like high-end beer. It takes a keen palate to detect the berry’s enigmatic flavor. Some say it has a tropical taste, like biting into a pineapple, while others disagree. The lack of sunlight is what gives it its white color.
- Sembikiya Queen Strawberries ($7/piece). These strawberries got their name from Sembikiya, Japan’s oldest fruit shop. In addition to being delicious, this fruit’s leaves are prized for their symmetry. Furthermore, because each strawberry is hand-selected, the berries in their fruit boxes are of the highest quality.
