Tropical Blue, the early season low-chill blueberry variety from Global Plant Genetics (GPG), is once more showing excellent potential for the impending fruiting season in Spain. The variety started to flower around one month earlier than last year and the first commercial harvests are expected to start in late December. This will put it at the forefront of the industry in terms of earliness. In addition to its seasonality, it has sector-leading fruit quality for this time of the season with regards to both size and firmness.

Soufiane Lahtati, Business Development Manager at GPG stated, “It is incredible to see a plant 17 months after planting that is so full of early fruit—this is Tropical Blue. Growers in Huelva expect to harvest more than 40% of the fruit for sale between January 10th and 25th, leading to very favourable prices.”

Young fields of Tropical Blue that were just 6 months from planting last year produced close to 3kg per plant of marketable fruit in Spain. This shows the overall potential of the cultivar as plantations become more mature.

Jamie Petchell of GPG commented, “Plantings of Tropical Blue have been consistently ramping up over the past two years but the interest has increased significantly in recent months. This is mainly down to the variety’s high-quality early season fruit that is amongst the very best in the blueberry market. The first commercial plantings from two years ago are now showing their full potential in terms of fruit set and yield expectations are high for the first part of the season in Southern Europe.”

Tropical Blue is a variety with an erect habit and is not overly vegetative, which means all the fruit is exposed, reducing harvesting costs. The fruit size of Tropical Blue ranges from 16 to 22 mm, and the taste is sweet with a slight hint of acidity, making it very pleasant to eat. It has a good shelf life and excellent post-harvest qualities.