BLACKCURRANTS

The long hot summer has been great for Danish berries, but not so good for Danish berry producers. The price of blackcurrants, the biggest crop, is currently (so to say) only kr.0.60-0.80 per kilo, compared with a direct harvesting cost of kr.0.90 per kilo, and a breakeven price, taking all costs into account, of around kr.5 per kilo. With such low prices, producers are either not harvesting, leaving the fruit on the bushes, or tearing up the bushes and getting out of the business.

The situation is not helped by the huge increase in production in recent years in Poland. Denmark has roughly 2,100 hectares of blackcurrant bushes, but the E.U. provided subsidies to Poland to plant a massive 10,000 hectares. Appeals to "buy Danish" have been drowned out by the flood of Polish imports and subsequent low prices.

This is yet another example of the difficulties of producing a basic product in a high-cost, high-wage economy.

Walter Blotscher