Saskatchewan saskatoon berry growers are preparing to ship a container of the fruit to Germany after that country agreed to open its border to imports.
Arne Strom, outgoing president of the Saskatchewan Fruit Growers Association, relayed the good news to the group’s annual meeting Nov. 13.
“They are accepting it as a widely used fruit in North America,” Strom said in an interview. “This will open up the whole European market.”
Documents stating Germany’s decision arrived in early November, he said, but they are in German. Strom said translators are still working their way through the correspondence but the message is clear.
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Earlier this year, Britain’s Food Standards Agency ruled that the purple berries were a novel food. Legislation requires a food safety review of products “not substantially consumed” in the United Kingdom before 1997. The move shut saskatoons out of the entire European marketplace.
At the time, Saskatchewan agriculture minister Mark Wartman called the decision “ludicrous,” saying the berries had been a staple of North American diets for centuries.
“It was particularly good news this morning to hear that Germany is reclassifying saskatoons from a novelty food,” he told the fruit growers meeting.
The association and one company that is dealing with German buyers hired a lawyer to argue the case and Strom said they were successful in having saskatoons placed under regular food regulations.
Several Saskatchewan growers will be filling the order for the first container of about 60,000 pounds, Strom said.
There are about 240 growers in the province, who harvested about 900 acres this year. Production is worth about $6.5 million to the provincial economy, according to Saskatchewan Agriculture.
