Bärometer 2021 - what happens to the wild berries?

The compilation shows that the commercial collection of wild berries amounted to 25,000 tons. This corresponds to a few percent of the annual berry production in Swedish nature. Bilberries and lingonberries dominate, while cloudberries make up a few percent. Most of the berries were picked by roughly 5,000 Thai berry pickers, who were linked to about ten Swedish berry traders but employed by foreign staffing agencies. A smaller portion of the berries were picked by berry pickers without formal affiliation, often originating from countries in Eastern Europe.

After collection, the berries go their separate ways. The largest part is cleaned and frozen by a handful of Swedish berry wholesalers, but a smaller part is exported fresh to foreign companies. At the same time, Swedish berry wholesalers import a significant amount of wild berries from abroad. Some of these stay in Sweden, while others are re-exported. In the end, about half of the berries are sold to the domestic food industry. The rest is sold to foreign companies that produce food (mostly lingonberries) and health supplements (only bilberries, which contain antioxidants).

– In contrast to the common narrative about the Swedish berry industry, at least half of the collected berries are used for domestic food production, says Johnn Andersson, Researcher at Uppsala University.

However, domestic food production mostly consists of jam production. It is also common for the food industry to replace Swedish bilberries with cultivated blueberries, imported from North and South America.

In parallel with the commercial collection of wild berries, there is private berry picking for household purposes. Swedish households also buy berries directly from unaffiliated berry pickers who conduct sales at markets and via social media. The extent of this activity is difficult to estimate, but it is likely that it concerns a much smaller amount of berries than the commercial berry industry.

Authors: Johnn Andersson (Uppsala University) and Charlotta Hedberg (Umeå University)

The work is part of the research center FINEST and the research project WiBS, both funded by the research council Formas.