Blueberries are packed with antioxidants that can help fight cancer, diabetes, heart disease and other ailments.
At the Chiltern blueberry farm, workers surrounded by shrubland delicately packed small dark blue balls into neatly stacked boxes, ready for shipping. According to official figures, South Africa’s gross domestic product collapsed by an annualised 51% in the second quarter of 2020, and more than 30% of the workforce is unemployed, the highest level since 2008.“We are closer to Europe and the UK than Peru or Chile,” she added. And South Africa’s blueberry production was counter-seasonal to its export market.
Official figures show that the value of exports in the province has already jumped from 133 million rand in 2013 to more than a billion rand in 2018.