Elite Agro has announced that it will double its blueberry production capacity by adding 14 hectares of greenhouses dedicated to growing an additional 72,000 plants for the 2023 harvest.

Triggered by growing consumer demand for locally produced high-quality berries, the company has already increased its output capacity for 2022 to 280 tons of blueberries, compared to 205 tons in 2021. The significantly ramped-up crop was harvested during a 17-week period to ensure consumers can obtain the freshest locally grown blueberries from neighbourhood retailers.

Their crop of premium branded ‘Elite Berry’ blueberries is made up of five varieties, including the famous blueberry named ‘Eureka Jumbo’, which are all grown at the Al Foah Farm in Al Ain where 20 greenhouses, covering 12 hectares are dedicated to producing this incredibly popular fruit. Each greenhouse is home to over 3,350 blueberry plants that thrive from a climate-controlled environment enabled by state-of-the-art automated technology. The company also aspires to plant other varieties of blueberries that will ensure early winter production in addition to an extended harvesting period.

The blueberry plant saplings are sown in a growing medium, which is a combination of coco peat, perlite and other substances, explicitly created for blueberries. A drip irrigation system is used to supply them with nutrients that have been mixed with water while controlling the growth of individual plants by regular soil and foliage analysis.