By Dhiladhila Magazine · Issue 03

Most of the crop flies to Europe. The five percent that stays is the more interesting story at home.

For most Namibian shoppers the blueberry has been an import – expensive, occasional and flown in. In July 2020 that quietly changed, as fruit grown on the Okavango and sold as Namib Blue began reaching local shelves before the bulk of the crop left the country.

A local fruit, mostly for export

The economics point outward. About ninety-five percent of the harvest is bound for Europe, Asia and the Indian Ocean islands, with roughly five percent kept for home – an early batch of around 500 kilograms placed in Checkers stores. It is a small share of a 150-tonne target, but it is the first time the berry on the shelf carries a Namibian name.

Five percent of the crop is a rounding error abroad and a first at home.

Taste, price and a new habit

Whether the fruit sticks locally is a question of price and habit, not supply. Sales specialist Henriette le Grange said the aim was to supply locally as much as the market can absorb and export the rest, a signal that home demand is something to be grown rather than assumed. A home-grown berry can, in time, be fresher and less exotic than an imported one.

The export earns the money; the local shelf builds the habit.

For a retailer, a grocer or a curious shopper, Namib Blue is a small cultural shift as much as an agricultural one: a fruit long treated as a luxury import, now grown up the road. The decision it leaves the home market is whether Namibians make a local blueberry an ordinary part of the shop, or leave it a novelty while the crop earns its keep abroad.

Sources: The Namibian; Namib Blue soon to set sail (The Namibian); GIPF investee harvests first blueberry crop (Windhoek Observer)